David Pastrnak scored 61 goals in 2022-23. It is the second-highest total of the past decade. Only Connor McDavid (64 last year) has scored more. Since 2014-15, Pastrnak’s first NHL season, he is No. 3 in goals scored behind Alex Ovechkin and Auston Matthews. He currently leads the league with 248 shots.
Advertisement
Appropriately, the Boston Bruins right wing has a reputation.
“He’s one of the best goal scorers in the game right now,” said Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “He’s dangerous on the power play. He’s a threat five-on-five. He’s one of the most dynamic offensive players in the league.”
Pastrnak’s opponents are discovering his multidimensional talent the hard way.
On Jan. 4, the same day Sullivan highlighted Pastrnak’s knack for putting pucks in nets, the 27-year-old showed off his passing. In the second period, after pulling a puck off the boards, Pastrnak spotted Morgan Geekie on the other side of the offensive zone. Pastrnak threaded a rink-wide pass through the sticks of Kris Letang and Lars Eller. Geekie scored off the rush.
Geeks cuts down the deficit. pic.twitter.com/mnJ0nQHaxA
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 5, 2024
“There wasn’t a lot of room,” Geekie said. “He made a great play. I just tried to make a good shot and put it in. Anytime you give a player like that time, good things are going to happen. He creates a lot of it himself.”
Other teams consider Pastrnak the Bruins’ first-and-forever scoring threat. Opposing coaches have trained their best defenders on Pastrnak to maul him, negate his stick and deny him the puck.
It hasn’t worked. He’s still finding the net. Tighter checking, meanwhile, has unlocked Pastrnak’s playmaking component.
After 49 games, Pastrnak is averaging 2.40 assists per 60 minutes of all-situations play, per Natural Stat Trick. It is the highest rate of his career.
“Great passer,” said Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. “Lethal shot. Great goal scorer. He’s always finding quiet ice away from the net so he can shoot. He’s not afraid to go to the net. Uses his linemates well. Great skater. He’s competitive. Go down the list. He’s a lot to handle. You have to be aware of a guy like him at all times.”
Advertisement
This season, more than in any of his previous nine, it is impossible to limit the panorama of No. 88’s skills. Pastrnak is everything.
New faces
Charlie Coyle is Pastrnak’s most recent center. Pastrnak has also played with Geekie and Pavel Zacha.
Coyle, Zacha and Geekie have served the Bruins well. But all three would acknowledge their limitations when compared to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, Pastrnak’s previous pivots.
Bergeron, in concert with Brad Marchand, helped make Pastrnak a superstar. The 63-37-88 partnership created offensive music through relentless puck pursuit and east-west O-zone wizardry. Nobody won pucks for Pastrnak like Bergeron.
Krejci applied deception, delay and vision to express his good friend’s goal-scoring skill. With Zacha as their left wing, the Czech Mates rolled opponents at a 34-14 goals for/against clip at five-on-five last year.
You’d think, then, that with his two most recent centers settled in their rocking chairs, Pastrnak’s lethality would suffer. It has not.
Pastrnak is averaging 4.43 points per 60 minutes, the highest mark of his career. He could score with a pineapple as his center.
This is not always the case with NHL wings. Nicklas Backstrom excelled at getting pucks to Alex Ovechkin. Ryan Getzlaf knew how to set up Corey Perry. Jamie Benn would not have 370 career goals without Tyler Seguin.
But Pastrnak does not need a center to hold his hand. He is like Artemi Panarin and Patrick Kane: wings who create their own offense. Pastrnak is a self-starting offensive inferno.
“Players that drive lines offensively,” coach Jim Montgomery said of Pastrnak’s cohort. “They find the ability to get pucks in situations, not in the offensive zone, but more in the D-zone and through the neutral zone where they have time and space, where they can attack more ice. That’s what makes those players so dynamic. They’re almost like centers playing wing.”
Advertisement
Montgomery found balance earlier this year by using Geekie, a career bottom-six forward, as Pastrnak’s center. Lately, Montgomery has preferred a power trio of Marchand, Coyle and Pastrnak. The designated finisher is just as dangerous when he’s slinging pucks onto his linemates’ sticks.
“My passing ability was always there,” Pastrnak said. “I was just working on my shot more than my passing ability. So when I see the play, I try and make it.”
Montgomery’s biggest problem is finding Pastrnak enough shifts. The right wing is averaging 19:55 of ice time per game, most of his career. He’s usually the first forward over the boards after a penalty kill, successful or otherwise. Montgomery uses him in endgame situations, not just to feed him empty-net bunnies but because his presence makes attacking teams think twice about taking risks.
Whatever Montgomery gives him, Pastrnak wants more. The great ones always do.
Scoring from everywhere
Pastrnak has earned a reputation for his one-time dagger from the left circle. It is a singular weapon of quickness, accuracy and heaviness.
“Any puck that goes over to him, there’s a chance he’s going to score if he’s open or not,” said Colorado’s Andrew Cogliano. “That’s the type of player he is. You try to take him away. You talk about that. But guys like him, they just find open space. They know where guys are going to be and where they’re going to go. He gets an opportunity to one-time a puck, the chance it’s going in is pretty high. You can’t speak for a lot of guys in the league and say that.
“Phenomenal player. Just a very smart, headsy player. The dumb players in the league usually gravitate to an area. The smart ones find open space, get on the weak side and find open areas.”
Naturally, teams have focused on eliminating his one-timer. Pastrnak has adapted. He is a roving menace, able to score with a step-and-snap wrister or by rotating to unmarked territory.
Advertisement
His robust processing power encourages improvisation.
“I probably just assumed he was a pure goal scorer,” said first-year Bruin Kevin Shattenkirk. “He’s tremendous at creating off the rush off entries. Getting the puck, down the boards, pulling up and making little touch plays and seam passes. The way he sees the ice, he sees plays happening three steps ahead. That’s special talent.”
Like most coaches, Montgomery was unaware of Pastrnak’s well-rounded presence when he arrived last year. He is no longer caught off guard. The privilege of running with puck hounds like Bergeron and Marchand is paying off.
“How competitive he is is probably the biggest pleasant surprise,” said Montgomery. “Guys that can score like him can disappear, then reappear and score goals. But he wins battles. How much he carries the puck and drives a line has been the second thing that’s really impressed me.”
Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid are competing for the title of best player. Appropriately, they are the NHL’s top two earners.
Pastrnak is in the first season of his eight-year, $90 million contract. He belongs to the second tier under MacKinnon and McDavid in terms of performance and compensation. But he is not satisfied with his residence.
“Players are determined to leave their mark in the game. You don’t have to worry about that,” Montgomery said of Pastrnak. “They want to get better each and every year. He continues to add different arsenals to his goal-scoring prowess, playmaking ability and also his defensive game. We’re lucky to have him.”
(Top photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
