from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

It's all just a little incongruous.

Torey Krug, after all, is in so many ways just a kid. A 22-year-old who has 23 NHL regular-season games under his belt.

He still talks to his dad, who coached him growing up, after every game.

And yet there are elements to Krug that make him seem impossibly mature.

He married his college sweetheart in a backyard service at his in-laws' home this past summer. He made the Bruins team out of camp this fall, his first-ever NHL training camp after signing with the team as a free agent after he completed his third year at Michigan State in the spring of 2012. And, of course, there is his play on the ice: smooth, fearless, confident, something that belies his youthfulness and relative inexperience.

Given his play in the playoffs last spring, when he stepped into an injury-depleted Bruins lineup and helped them reach the sixth game of the Stanley Cup finals, it's hard to think of Krug as anything but a savvy NHLer. And yet as the league moves into the second quarter of the season, Krug has six goals and 12 points -- more than any other Boston defenseman, including captain and former Norris Trophy winner Zdeno Chara.

continued