The Bruins started slow Saturday, and they had plenty of excuses to do so. It was their third game in roughly three and a half days. They were banged up, with Jake DeBrusk, Matt Poitras and Derek Forbort all out injured. It was an early start, but also a delayed one thanks to a pregame ceremony in Philadelphia to honor Mark Recchi. And it was the last game before the All-Star break.
Bruins hit All-Star break atop the Eastern Conference
Still, the Bruins did want to find a way to go into the break on a high note, especially facing a Flyers team that came into the game on a four-game losing streak. They just needed some sort of spark to get them there.
Enter David Pastrnak. Perhaps sensing that his team needed its best player to step up, Pastrnak did just that on a string of dominant shifts over the second half of the first period, helping the Bruins score four goals in 4:14 en route to a 6-2 victory.
The scoring barrage started with just under six minutes left in the opening frame when Pastrnak took a pass from Pavel Zacha in transition, used a Flyers defender as a screen, and snapped a shot into the top corner past Samuel Ersson’s blocker.
On his very next shift, Pastrnak went right back to work in the offensive zone. He created a pair of chances for himself taking the puck to the front from behind the net, then set up James van Riemsdyk for another chance right in front. Zacha collected the loose puck after that chance and set up Charlie McAvoy backdoor to make it 2-0. Pastrnak didn’t get a point, but did start the whole sequence.
Between that goal and Pastrnak’s next shift, Danton Heinen tipped in a Brandon Carlo shot to make it 3-0. And then on Pastrnak’s next shift, it was 4-0. Pastrnak and van Riemsdyk went to work on the forecheck, winning multiple battles before van Riemsdyk then threw the puck to the front. That produced a loose puck that Pastrnak was in perfect position to bury for his second goal of the game.
The first intermission would provide just a brief mercy for the helpless Flyers. The first time the van Riemsdyk-Zacha-Pastrnak line stepped on the ice in the second period – you guessed it – they scored. Zacha led the offensive-zone cycle before Hampus Lindholm then sent a slap pass to the stick of Pastrnak on the doorstep. His redirect went wide, but he won the puck back with a second effort and then centered for a van Riemsdyk tap-in.
Four shifts, four goals for that line, with Pastrnak leading the way. Zacha and van Riemsdyk certainly played their parts as well, as did Lindholm, who was actually on the ice for all five of Boston’s goals and found himself sitting at plus-5 after a little over 21 minutes of action.
That line of van Riemsdyk-Zacha-Pastrnak was just put together on Saturday. DeBrusk had been playing right wing with Zacha and van Riemsdyk recently, but with him out, Jim Montgomery opted to put Pastrnak there and move Trent Frederic up with Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle in an effort to create some balance.
As it turned out, that trio would create a major imbalance in the best way possible, with Pastrnak serving as the cheat code he has been pretty much all season. With three points on Saturday, he enters the All-Star break with 33 goals and 39 assists for 72 points in 49 games. He ranks third in the NHL in both goals and points, and now has multiple points in over half of Boston’s games (25 to be exact). He has three points in 11 of them.
The Bruins hit the All-Star break with wins in seven of their last eight games, and now once again have the best record in the entire NHL (31-9-9).
They are now off until Tuesday, Feb. 6, when they return from the break with a home game against the Calgary Flames. Pastrnak and teammate Jeremy Swayman will both be heading to Toronto for the All-Star Game on Saturday, Feb. 3.