Bruins’ 3 stars of the week: David Pastrnak racking up goals
COMMENTARY
Things are starting to come together for the Boston Bruins.
Through three games of their busy five-games-in-seven-days slate, the Black and Gold are 2-1 and getting more contributions from their second and third lines. That secondary scoring, along with one of the leading goal scorers in the NHL and an improving special teams unit highlights the latest edition of Weekly 3 Stars:
David Pastrnak
Through his first two seasons, David Pastrnak battled injuries amid frequent trips back and forth from Providence. Despite all of that, he showed flashes of his offensive creativity and scoring touch.
In year three, he’s on pace for a breakthrough performance.
Not only is Pastrnak tied for second in the league in goals with Sidney Crosby and Mark Scheifele at nine, but the right winger is improving his play without the puck. Even when he’s turning it over, Pastrnak is quick to correct his mistakes and isn’t dwelling on his miscue(s).
Perhaps that is a sign of playing with the dynamic duo of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. The trio has been one of the more effective top scoring lines in the NHL so far.
“I’ve said many times for me it’s great to play with those two and I have a lot of stuff to learn from them,” Pastrnak said. “I’m trying to listen to what they want to do and where they want me to be.”
Second and third lines
The Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak trio was unquestionably carrying the Bruins offensively during the first few weeks of the season. Meanwhile, the Bruins’ second and third lines were struggling to light the lamp.
During this week’s busy slate, the Bruins are finally finding some offense outside of their top unit. Of the three games this week, the Bruins have scored 11 goals, with five of those tallies coming from their second and third lines. In that span, Matt Beleskey, David Krejci and Riley Nash each notched their first of the season, while David Backes snapped a skid of seven straight games without a goal.
With the fourth line continuing to chip in, head coach Claude Julien is finally able to roll out his lineup on a more consistent basis.
“Lately they’ve started to give us a little something of the lines that were.”
Bruins power play
Entering Friday’s schedule of games, the Bruins power play ranked 24th in the league with a success rate of 14 percent. That may sound weak, but it’s actually a step up from their struggles a week ago when they allowed two shorthanded goals against the Rangers.
Although it was held without a goal in two chances against Columbus, the Bruins’ power play is flowing a little more smoothly. From moving the puck to creating time and space, the B’s are finding ways to be more successful on the man advantage.
Against the Sabres, the Bruins went 3 for 8 on the power play and capitalized on a key 5-on-3 situation with David Krejci putting the team ahead 2-0 in the second period. That success carried over into the next night against the Canadiens, where David Pastrnak tied the game at 2-2 in the third with his power play goal. This marked the first time that the Bruins had scored power play goals in two straight games.
Not bad for a team that was under double digits in power play percentage entering the week.
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