Torey Krug looked like a man possessed Monday night. Flying around the ice like a heat-seeking missile, the Boston Bruins defenseman was all kinds of nasty during his team’s win over the St. Louis Blues.
He even managed to give the other team’s goalie a case of the heebie-jeebies.
Krug’s devastating hit on Blues winger Robert Thomas was the signature highlight from Boston’s victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. After the bone-crunching blow, which sent TD Garden (and Kyle Van Noy) into a frenzy, Krug skated toward Jordan Binnington and stared down the rookie netminder.
(You can click here for an epic photo and less epic GIF of the whole ordeal.)
As they were during the postgame, Krug’s shenanigans were the primary topics of conversation after Tuesday’s practices. The best quote came from Binnington, who characterized Krug as if he were one of those White Walker-controlled zombie-things that overran Winterfell during that weird “Game of Thrones” episode.
Check out this tweet from The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang:
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington on his interaction with Torey Krug after Krug's helmet-less hit: "It was more a stare. His pupils were pretty big. I don't if he's on something, but he was pretty fired up."
— Nicole Yang (@nicolecyang) May 28, 2019
Whether it’s caused by fear, confusion, disgust or a combination of the three, creeping your opponent out has to be a competitive advantage, right?
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it was a great moment in a great hockey game and we should leave it at that.
Regardless, the Bruins and Blues will meet Wednesday night with Boston holding a 1-0 edge in the best-of-seven series. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
