It wasn’t a total loss as Bruins’ David Pastrnak is named All-Star MVP
He totaled six points across two games in the 3-on-3 tournament.
ST. LOUIS — A quick jaunt to a tropical location awaited David Pastrnak after the All-Star festivities. Five days from Saturday, the Bruins will reconvene in their Brighton digs for a practice, then jet off for a chilly back-to-back that begins Friday in Winnipeg.
The 23-year-old Pastrnak, an All-Star for the second year in a row, earned his first All-Star MVP award. Though his Atlantic Division squad lost, 5-4, to the Pacific in Saturday’s 3-on-3 championship final, Boston’s star sniper was named best in class for his six-point performance (4-2–6) in two games.
Pastrnak, the Atlantic captain, scored a hat trick with an assist in a 9-5 win over the Metropolitan Division in the semifinal, and produced a goal and an assist in the final. The Pacific will split a $1 million prize, but Pastrnak was handed the keys to a 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid. He didn’t yet know what he would do with it.
“Maybe ship it back home,’’ he said.
Pastrnak is the fourth Bruin to win the All-Star MVP. The others: Bill Guerin (2001), Ray Bourque (1996) and Bobby Orr (1972). Pastrnak said he was surprised by the honor, since it came in a loss.
“If I was voted in by fans, I appreciate the love,’’ said Pastrnak, who last competed here in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. “Probably wasn’t any fans from the St. Louis building.’’
As has been his habit during the regular season, Pastrnak scored first on Saturday. In the semifinal, he dunked a give-and-go with Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman some 26 seconds in. He also tied the game with 1:32 left in the first, at 4, by breaking in and slipping a backhander through Braden Holtby’s legs. Pastrnak added his third goal at 9:05 in the second period. His goal in the final was a pretty breakaway finish, which put his team up, 3-1, in the first period
Overall, he was just as relaxed this time around as he was last year in San Jose. As usual, if he was speaking, he was smiling.
“I had so many mixed emotions,’ he kidded Friday night about his performance in the new “Shooting Stars’’ event, in which he was ninth-best (14 points) at flinging pucks at on-ice targets from a 30-foot platform in the lower bowl of the Enterprise Center.
“Some guys were absolutely missing them and some guys were hitting them. I was getting nervous. It’s tough to be honest. It felt like if you just sauce it, it’s going to be too short, but if you shoot it, it’s too high.’’
Pastrnak said he didn’t ask to participate in the accuracy shooting portion, which he won last year. He got his kicks, like the rest, by aiming toward the giant arch in center ice, which was 145 feet from the platform. It was worth 10 points. Pastrnak’s attempts missed or clanked off the backboard.
“We are all hockey players,’’ he said. “You see 10 and that’s what you’re going for. It was right in the middle, shining in our eyes. Nobody saw anything but 10.
“Bad preparation by me. I never practiced that. Should’ve built a 30-feet high [platform] and practiced that before All-Star. Unfortunately I was a bad pro and didn’t do it. That way I can’t deserve a win.’’
Pastrnak also wasn’t successful in his shootout attempts, during the Goalie Save Streak event. But he wasn’t sweating it, even though the Bruins have struggled as a team (0-7 in shootout decisions).
“Way better than last year,’’ Pastrnak said of his skills performance. “Last year I had four attempts and one shot on net. This year I had two shots.’’
Barzal ends streak
The biggest upset in the skills competition: Islander Mathew Barzal ending Connor McDavid’s three-year reign in the fastest skater event. Barzal’s time (13.175 seconds) was just 0.03 seconds slower than Dylan Larkin’s event record. McDavid’s lap was 13.215.
“I was talking to him earlier in the lobby of the hotel,’’ Barzal said Friday night. “I might have gotten lucky this week. He was on a break. His break actually happened for a few days so he hadn’t been on skates for a while. We just finished two days ago so I was fresh on my skates.
“You watch him out there, his stride is picture perfect, he never stops moving . . . I don’t think I could have skated a better lap. I don’t think I could have done it again.’’
That McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer (27-49—76) is here is all the more impressive considering that last April, he crashed into a goalpost and completely tore the PCL in his left knee, along with two menisci and a popliteus muscle, and cracked his tibial plateau.
Hiirikoski praised
The best player outside of North America, according to Kendall Coyne Schofield? Finnish captain Jenni Hiirikoski. “The world needs to know who she is,’’ Coyne Schofield said.
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