Cool, Calm, and Collected | An Appreciation of David Krejci

BOSTON - David Pastrnak was feeling on edge.

He was only an 18-year-old kid and about to begin his maiden National Hockey League training camp just a few months after being selected by the Bruins in the first round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

With it being his first time in Boston, a teammate asked Pastrnak to dinner to help him get to know the city. That teammate just happened to be his hockey hero: Bruins longtime centerman David Krejci.

"I've been very open about it…Krech is one of my idols," said Pastrnak, "and he invited me for dinner."

Pastrnak was elated to receive the invitation from his fellow Czechia native and wanted to make sure he did everything right.

"It was one of my first days of me being in Boston - and I will never forget the day because I was getting ready for dinner for, probably, a couple of hours," said Pastrnak. "I was wearing a dress shirt, nice jeans, I was making my hair. I was really nervous but getting ready for it…I wanted to look good."

But when Pastrnak showed up to the restaurant, he discovered that he was a bit overdressed for the occasion.

"And then he showed up to the restaurant with shorts and a T-shirt…flip flops and his little hat. I remember that a lot and also how I was always thinking he has such a big bicep…I didn't know he had a big bicep," Pastrnak recalled with a smile.

"I was, obviously, 18 years old, skinny kid, so that was unbelievable because it's one thing to have dinner with your idol…but since 10 years ago since we met, now he's one of my best friends."

That moment is a perfect encapsulation of what Krejci - who announced his retirement from the NHL earlier this week after 16 seasons, all with the Black & Gold - has meant to the Bruins organization and his teammates.

While his approach and personality are often understated, he has garnered the utmost respect and admiration from all of those who have had the privilege to play alongside and work with him over the past two decades.

"So many memories…he's been my best friend since I got here and I'm really going to miss him," said Pastrnak, who was Krejci's full-time linemate for the first time during his final season in 2022-23.

"I have so many memories that make me think of him, especially. And that's the beauty of hockey, I found a friend for the rest of my life. He's definitely one of them…in 20-30 years from now, he's still going to be my friend and that's the beauty of the sport."

And the beauty of Krejci was his unparalleled combination of modesty, humor, poise - and a remarkable knack for coming up clutch in the biggest of moments.

Modest.

Brad Marchand stills gets a chuckle out of it.

The longtime Bruins' winger was thinking back to the club's Stanley Cup championship run in 2011 when he recalled Krejci's overtime winner in Game 2 of the second round against the Philadelphia Flyers.

A year after having his postseason ended by a crushing center-ice hit that left him with a broken wrist, Krejci was back with a vengeance to give the Bruins a 2-0 series lead in an eventual sweep of the Flyers, during which he posted four goals and eight points.

But for Krejci, it was just another day at the office.

"He's the most calm player I've ever seen," said Marchand. "And no matter the pressure situation, or the time in the game, the momentum swings that are going on, he's always very, very calm. I was laughing so hard at this, he scored an overtime goal, and it was like nothing had ever happened. He wasn't fazed at all. I was like, 'This is unbelievable. If I scored an overtime goal in the NHL playoffs, I would be going bananas.' And this guy is just like it was another day at the rink for him. It was like he was playing ball hockey.

"That's when I was like, 'OK, this guy is just a different breed, there's a reason why he's special. He does what he can on the ice because his mindset is like that just 24/7. Every time, I think about that, I'm blown away with who he is as a person, but it makes so much sense now the more I get to know him."

Krejci made sure that anyone that entered the Bruins' dressing room knew him as a welcoming and accepting figure despite his stature and success.

"Krecho was one of those guys that you walk into the room as a young guy, and you have to do a double take because that's really him," said Jeremy Swayman. "He's such a presence and the way he carries himself as a true professional is something that I always looked up to in him. He's an all-out competitor no matter what the stage of the game is - big or small, didn't matter. He always came to compete, and he brought every teammate around him up a level."

And while he was never the loudest player in the dressing room or on the ice, he was a player that his teammates made sure to respect.

"Just how he looks at life and takes [everything] day to day, I think that makes him super special," said Jake DeBrusk, who spent most of his first four seasons with the Bruins as Krejci's left wing. "He's not necessarily the loudest guy when it comes to leadership, but when he speaks, you listen."

Humorous.

The more you get to know Krejci, the more you also get to know and understand his unique brand of humor. While at first, it may seem like he's not joking at all, those around him quickly find out you must always be prepared for some hijinks.

"Krecho is a person that, for me, at first was hard to read," said Linus Ullmark, who played one season with Krejci in 2022-23. "When you get to know the real David Krejci and you understand his humor and understand how he is as a person, I get why so many people love him. And he is one of the best guys out there. The way he carries himself, the way he jokes and laughs, everything about him is a lot of fun."

Like Ullmark, Hampus Lindholm played his first and only season with Krejci in 2022-23 and realized right from the get-go that the veteran pivot was going to live up to the hype.

"It was probably like the first time I met him," said Lindholm. "Obviously, being around the team a little bit last year, you heard a lot about Krecho and a lot of Krejci stories. It was just fun to be a part of that…he has those funny jokes, he doesn't really show that much emotions, it's so funny, his humor.

"Especially early in the year, we had some new people around there that weren't really used to it, and it was just funny to see him, cold as ice, go and say these kinds of jokes and go and walk away and see the reactions on some people. He's a great guy, and fun to be around."

Brandon Carlo will miss the conversations that occurred away from the rink that almost always left a lasting impact.

"That's a great guy to have a beer with, for sure. And he'll always be available to have a beer with you, too, so that's an amazing part about him," said Carlo. "I loved in every situation where we had a team party…being able to get a few moments to talk to him in those settings was really nice, because it was easy to open up in those moments and get to know him a little better.

"But his humor is like nobody I've ever met. His sarcastic humor is pretty incredible and he's hard to read at times and I love that…I feel like we all kind of fed off of each other at times trying read into each other's jokes and that's something that I love about him."

Trent Frederic said that Krejci's positive outlook around the dressing room was contagious.

"What makes Krech so special as a player and a person is I think the creativity he has in life, the good outlook he has on life and in hockey," said Frederic. "He's always making it fun. He's making coming to the rink fun and not feeling like a job. I think that's how he just treats life and hockey with that creative mindset…he's a special person and we're going to miss him."

Poised.

On the ice, Krejci's creativity and poise was among the best in Bruins history.

The pivot registered 555 careers assists in 1,032 games for Boston, which ranks fifth in franchise history behind Ray Bourque (1,111), Johnny Bucyk (794), Bobby Orr (624), and longtime teammate Patrice Bergeron (613).

"His freakin' poise," said Charlie Coyle. "Krech's poise with the puck, it's seriously unbelievable. It doesn't seem like he has a heartbeat when he's out there playing. Those are special players, that with the game how fast it is, to be able to slow it down and play at his speed and control it that way and still make these unbelievable passes look effortless.

"He's a special player for those reasons…you envy a guy like that who is able to do that and control and look like he's not even taking a breath. So, he's a very special player."

Pavel Zacha, who like Pastrnak admired his fellow countryman from afar as he grew up in Czechia, had the privilege of playing alongside Krejci for much of the 2022-23 campaign. It was that up close and personal look at one of his idols that allowed him to fully appreciate the skill and talent the Krejci possessed.

"I think on the ice, he's a very, very smart player, the way he sees the game, the way he can explain to you as his linemate what he wants you to do. I think he gets better as the pressure goes on," said Zacha. "He can score goals, he can make plays, but he's also a two-way player. Everyone wants to be a player like that, like me, center, you want to be two-way center and do all that stuff and he was brilliant at any of those situations - defending, playing forward, and it was just such an easy game for me when I was playing with him.

Zacha had heard a strong scouting report on Krejci from former Bruin Mark Recchi, who was an assistant coach for New Jersey during Zacha's time with the Devils.

"He fit in perfectly when he was here," said Zacha. "Everyone loves him around here…I was talking to Mark Recchi, and he said, 'You guys are going to understand each other really well," and as soon as I came here, we kind of clicked and built a friendship and it was amazing."

Zacha, however, didn't quite think they were on the same page during their first faceoff together.

"My favorite memory of Krech was when I went out for the first faceoff with him on the ice, I think it was one of the first games [last season]," said Zacha. "And we had set plays after the faceoff and he just said a random word, and nobody knew what it was. And I was like, 'Krech, what is it? What are we going to do?' And he just said, 'Well, if you don't know, they're not going to know, so just skate somewhere and do whatever because it's going to throw them off.'

"I was so nervous, I was playing with Krejci and Pasta, my first game…he's sarcastic sometimes and he just tries to get these little jokes in. I was just talking about it with Pasta, and he was like, 'Yeah, he does it every time there's a new guy, he throws them off right away with this.' So, that was a funny memory right away from the start of the season."

For the B's on the back end, getting the puck to Krejci as quickly as possible was always the main objective.

"I don't think I've ever seen a player with such poise on the ice," said Carlo. "From experience playing with him, just the way that he'll hold onto the puck and create time and space for everybody else on the ice, it's truly incredible. For a defenseman like me moving the puck up into the forwards' hands as fast as possible is basically my goal all the time.

"But you could tell when he had the puck, it was going to be safe, and I wanted to get it to him right away because he wanted it all the time and special players want the puck all the time. So, his vision throughout the ice and just his ability to make plays…pretty incredible. I don't know if you'll ever see a passer like that again."

Clutch.

While all the aforementioned attributes have helped define Krejci over the past 16 seasons, there is nothing - from a pure hockey perspective - that has shaped his legacy more than his performances in the most critical moments and led to his most familiar moniker: Playoff Krech.

Krejci twice led the NHL in scoring during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, racking up 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 25 games during Boston's championship run in 2011 and 26 points (9 goals, 17 assists) in 22 games durinig their return trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2013. For his career, Krejci finished with 128 career postseason points, which is tied with Bergeron and Marchand for second most in club history behind Bourque (161).

"I think the playoffs kind of showed that Playoff Krejci is a beast and cannot be tamed," said Ullmark. "He is so good at what he does. He's done it for so many years and he excels when it matters the most. And that is something that we all truly aspire to do, ourselves.

"I think [the 2022-23] season is something that we always are never going to take for granted. It's always going to be with us, but we can all look at Krejci and know that when push comes to shove, he's there to excel and perform."

For the Bruins that were not part of the team back in 2011, there is one particular postseason moment - his "Bruins legacy moment" as Charlie McAvoy termed it - that seemed to stand out from afar. With Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Tampa scoreless midway through the third period, Krejci took a feed from Andrew Ference in the neutral zone and swiftly maneuvered through the Lightning's vaunted 1-3-1 trap.

As Krejci reached the left-wing circle, he delivered a perfect feed across the slot to Nathan Horton, who tapped it home from the top of the crease to give Boston a 1-0 lead, which in turn was good enough to send the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 21 years.

"I think of just getting to watch him play [as a fan], especially the 2011 run," said Coyle, who grew up a Bruins fan in Weymouth, Mass. "He came up with some pretty big plays and moments, that back-door pass to Nathan Horton against Tampa, I think that one kind of comes to mind when I think of Krecho [and] how he's just able to kind of slow the game down like that and make those plays and at the right moments in big moments."

"Hockey-wise, probably when he made that pass to Nathan Horton in Game 7," said fellow Mass. native Matt Grzelcyk. "I wasn't part of the organization yet, just a guy who always stepped up in big times and was such a clutch player for the Bruins in all these Cup runs, so that one sticks out for me."

It was in those moments, with everything on the line, that the greatness of Krejci always seemed to shine through.

"He just has that - it's hard to put a finger on it sometimes. But he has that little extra detail on the game and just a little touch, he makes the right plays when you want him to," said Lindholm. "We call him iceman because he's got ice in his veins. He's just calm, cool, collected."