That David Pastrnak returned to the Bruins’ lineup Tuesday night wasn’t surprising. He had made it clear on Monday that he intended to play at some point on this road trip after missing five games due to injury. Where Pastrnak slotted into the lineup was a bit of a surprise, though.
Skate Pod: Pastrnak returns on 'third line'
Boston coach Marco Sturm decided to put Pastrnak with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov. It was listed as the third line on the Bruins’ game sheet. Yes, a third line with a superstar who has topped 100 points in each of the last three seasons.
It was surprising not just because of where Pastrnak was listed, but also because it meant Sturm was breaking up his previous third line of Minten, Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic – a line that Sturm had not touched and had repeatedly praised for over a month.
The changes paid off better than Sturm could have possibly expected in a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues, the Bruins’ third straight win. Minten scored twice, registering his first career multi-goal game. Pastrnak assisted on both goals (and added a third assist on an empty-netter later). Kastelic, now on the fourth line with Jeannot and Sean Kuraly, also scored twice. Kuraly assisted on both of those.
Simply put, it was a dominant performance from the new-look bottom six – if you can really call a group with Pastrnak in it the “bottom six.” When those two lines were on the ice at 5-on-5 play, the Bruins outshot the Blues 13-6, outscored them 4-1, and had a 13-4 advantage in high-danger chances.
“Just three young kids playing together,” Pastrnak joked after the game when asked about his new line. “It was fun.”
Sturm made sure to praise Kastelic and Jeannot for the way they handled moving “down” to the fourth line.
“Some guys had to drop a line, just like Jeannot and Kastelic, and look at how they did today,” Sturm told NESN. “For me, that’s character. That’s exactly what we want in here. They didn’t complain or anything. They just got the job done.”
The reason Sturm went with these combinations on the third and fourth lines is because he didn’t want to touch his first or second line – and understandably so. The top line of Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and Alex Steeves has been rolling, as has the second line of Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson.
Neither of those lines scored Tuesday until Zacha tacked on a late empty-netter, but both played well and had chances. Scoring chances were 12-4 in favor of the Bruins when those two lines were on the ice. Zacha had a team-high six shots on goal. Geekie hit a post and drew a penalty. Arvidsson drew a penalty as well. Steeves landed seven hits, second on the team behind only Jeannot (9).
Putting Pastrnak back with Geekie and Lindholm and sliding Steeves down the lineup would have seemed like the most natural move for Sturm to make, but it’s a credit to the way Steeves has been playing that Sturm even considered something else. And by doing something else, he may have uncovered a deeper forward lineup than anyone would have expected this Bruins team to have this season.
How long Sturm sticks with this lineup remains to be seen, but it certainly worked out nicely on Tuesday.
“It’s a good thing. Now we have a lot of choices,” Sturm said. “Especially up front, everyone is getting back healthy. I don’t know. I went with my guts a little bit, and I thought that lineup we had today gives us the best chance.”