March 3 Lowell, Mass. (ON KREJCI, the SHOOTOUT SPECIALIST...)

LOWELL, Mass. -- I’d been wondering for a while, ever since the shootout was put into the NHL, whether there might be a spot for a shootout specialist.
  Something like the lefty hitter off the bench, or the long snapper. Someone whose mastery of one particular trick of the trade could earn him a long and productive NHL career.
 One thinks of Jussi Jokinen of the Dallas Stars, whose ice time is limited, but always gets the call when there is a shootout to be won.
 Jokinen became a legend last year, when he went 9 for his first 9 attempts, all of them game-winners for the Stars.
 One might also want to start thinking of David Krejci, who has come through for the Providence Bruins on nine of his first 13 shootout opportunities, including twice, tonight which served to fitchfork the Lowell Devils, 3-2.
 Krejci prides himself on having a whole reportoire of moves to use in these situations, and he used two of them on Lowell goalie Frank Doyle.
 “There’s no point in being nervous,” said Krejci, who is having a sensational rookie pro season. “You just have to go out there and keep it simple, because the ice is bad (they don’t dry cut down here the way they do in the NHL). Do the move you do best.”
 I asked Krejci whether he goes into each attempt with a plan, or does he simply wing it.
He said he kind of does both.
 “I see the goalie,” he said, “and how he’s looking at me. What his positioning is. I’ve got two or three moves I can do, and I decide from there.”
  Jeff Gorton, the Bruins Asst GM, was hanging around outside the Peebs’ dressing room, so I mentioned that Krejci could be the next Jokinen.
 “Maybe,” he said. “But he could be more than that.”

 While on the subject of shootouts, Peebs’ goalie Hannu Toivonen made an amazing save on the first round attempt by Nicklas Bergfors.
  Bergfors, who is probably New Jersey’s best prospect, came at Toivonen down the right side, then tried to beat him on the back hand with a last minute spin move.
 But Toivonen read him perfectly, and whirling with Bergfors in near unison, stopped him at the left post with the back of his paddle.
 (Tres impressif! Anyone know the Finnish translation?)
 “He made a really nice move,” said Toivonen, Boston’s former first rounder who is back in the bushes to try to get his game back together, “I have to give him credit for that. It was concentration. There wasn’t much else I could do out there.”
 He did enough.


 While it’s not exactly shootout related, the game I did last night between the Peebs and Worcester furnished something rarely seen (at least I haven’t and no one else I spoke to had, either), namely two penalty shots called in the same game.
 Both in the third period, too. Worcester connected on its, while Thomas Greiss stopped Peebs’ whrling dervish Pascal Pelletier on his.
 It’s always something……