Krejci's Bout Turned the Tide in B's Win Over Dallas

BOSTON - Through 65 games this season, the Bruins have dropped the gloves just 16 times, putting the Black & Gold on pace for their lowest amount of fighting majors in at least 50 years.
It is a sharp drop off from the days of the Big, Bad, Bruins, who topped 100 bouts a season several times during the 1980s. But in the ever-changing and evolving National Hockey League, toe drags and dekes have become far more important than upper cuts and jabs.
As such, David Krejci's silky mitts are far more valuable when they remain on his hands.

Despite the downward trend in fisticuffs, however, there is little doubt that a fight can still provide a team with a boost from time to time. Krejci - yes, Krejci - was proof of that on Thursday night.
With the game tied midway through the second period, the veteran pivot had just about enough of Dallas Stars center Joe Pavelski after a lengthy battle up the ice and challenged him in front of the Bruins net.
Krejci landed several rights, bringing the TD Garden faithful to its feet, while injecting some much-needed energy into the Black & Gold The effect was almost immediate as Boston responded just over three minutes later with two goals in a span of 1:17 to take the lead en route to a 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars.
"Just one of those things. I felt like he was a little over the line towards me, so I just tried to settle him down," said Krejci, whose bout helped Boston snap its brief two-game losing skid. "It's nice to see the guys respond. That was a good win, good bounce-back win from the last game, so pretty happy about those two points."

While the sight of any teammate dropping the gloves often ignites the bench, the Bruins were clearly fired up when they realized it was Krejci, who had not been assessed a fighting major since Feb. 9, 2011 when he took on Benoit Pouliot in Boston's memorable fight-filled win over the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden. Krejci's only other previous bout (Mike Cammalleri on Dec. 16, 2010) also came during the 2010-11 season against Montreal.
"Well, it sure appeared [to get the team going], right?" said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "I mean, get a couple old-timers like that going at it. I mean, everyone enjoys it. I don't know much about Pavelski [fighting], but Krech I've seen him in a few over the years. He can hold his own. He's a good partner for him, looked like there were two willing guys going at it.
"That's just some of that stuff that happens in hockey through the course of the game. It's organic, nothing staged there. It certainly woke us up. Not that I felt we didn't have it early on, but gave us a little extra juice. Let's put it that way."
After Krejci and Pavelski went at it at 11:24 of the second, the Bruins responded 3:20 later when Brad Marchand buried his 26th goal of the season off a beautiful cross-crease feed from Charlie McAvoy to give Boston its first lead. The Bruins struck again just 1:17 after that when Nick Ritchie notched his first in Black & Gold with a bouncing wrister from the high slot to extend Boston's advantage to 3-1.
"That was big. The crowd was into that one and [Krejci] definitely got a few good shots in," said Ritchie. "Seeing two veterans fight like that is good for the momentum…it was good we kind of blew it open there. It was probably the difference in the game…it was pretty close other than that. We capitalized."

Dallas did pull back within a goal on Denis Gurianov's tally at 1:18 of the third, but David Pastrnak responded 2:35 later by tapping home his 46th of the season off a slick dish from Ritchie at the net mouth. The Stars once again cut the deficit to one with just under three minutes remaining but was unable to find the equalizer with Ben Bishop on the bench for an extra attacker.
"We responded," said Cassidy. "I think they were aware [the last two games] wasn't our best…I think there are certain points of the year the schedule gets you a little bit, and I thought there was a stretch there that it did get us, and that had something to do with it. But we needed to be better, and we were tonight."
With some help - in an unexpected way - from Krejci, though the 33-year-old certainly doesn't plan on making fighting a part of his regular repertoire.
"I thought it was a few times he kind of went a little too far in that period," said Krejci, who briefly retreated to the dressing room to clean up his bloodied right hand. "I just didn't like it…happy he was willing to go and we settled that down right there and we moved on.
"I have nothing personal against that guy. I like him as a player, but I thought towards me a few times he went a little too far…this is nothing I want to do too often. It's just one of those things in the moment you don't really think much."