David Krejčí makes milestone 1000th NHL appearance
Czech ice hockey forward David Krejčí reached a career milestone on Monday when he played his 1,000th NHL regular season game. And he celebrated in style, notching up three assists as his Boston Bruins beat Philadelphia Flyers 6:0.
Krejčí, who is 36, led his Bruins teammates onto the ice and was treated to a loud ovation from the home crowd.
The club’s head coach, Jim Montgomery, later described the man from Šternberk as a Bruins legend who made all the players around him better.
Indeed the Czech, who was drafted 19 years ago, has spent all of his 15 seasons at the club and is only the seventh player in its history to reach the 1,000-game mark.
In his time with Boston he has tallied 226 goals and 535 assists for 761 points.
Krejčí was part of the club’s Stanley Cup win in 2011 and led the NHL in points during the competition’s playoffs in 2011 and 2013.
He has also had an impressive international career, turning out for the Czech national team at the 2010, 2014 and 2022 Winter Olympics and four World Championships.
“You come every day to the rink with a smile on your face,” the website Boston.com quoted the Czech as saying about the present season. “You’re enjoying every moment, because you don’t know how long it’s gonna last.”
Boston will honour David Krejčí for making it to 1,000 games with the team with a pre-game ceremony on February 20 at the club’s arena.
