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‘That guy has no ceilings’: David Pastrnak had a big game in the Bruins’ opening-night win
Pastrnak finished with four points, including a tough goal.
The Bruins started their season with an encouraging 5-2 victory over the Capitals on Wednesday, led — to no one’s surprise — by David Pastrnak.
Pastrnak was in mid-season form, with four points including three assists and a goal. His goal came with just under five minutes remaining in the first period — coming off the wall, Pastrnak spun and fired a tough shot into the net to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
Pastrnak’s final assist, meanwhile, was one of the most impactful shots of the game. After the Bruins raced out to a 3-0 lead, the Capitals inched back to within a goal with under four minutes remaining in the third period. The Bruins, however, pieced together a breakaway spearheaded by Pastrnak, who fired a shot at Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper. Kuemper made the save, but the shot took him out of position. David Krejčí cleaned things up to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.
Hampus Lindholm’s empty-net goal with just over a minute remaining accounted for the rest of the scoring.
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Krejčí, who scored a goal and assisted on two others in his first game back on NHL ice, raved about his teammate.
“I see him every day in practice. He’s just a world-class player,” Krejčí told reporters after the game. “It’s crazy. That guy has no ceilings. He just keeps getting better.”
Pastrnak was asked about Krejčí’s comments.
“Obviously, I work on my game every day. I’m feeling old, but I’m still pretty young,” Pastrnak said with a smile. “I definitely think I can get better, and I’m trying to get better every day.”
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Pastrnak returned the compliment to Krejčí as well. Last season, Krejčí signed with HC Olomouc of the Czech Extraliga. A potential return to the NHL was “open-ended” at the time, per the Bruins, but the 36-year-old looked comfortable and ready to go on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be different for him,” Pastrnak told reporters. “Maybe he doesn’t admit [it, but] it’s always different going from big ice to small, and we know he’s only going to get better.
“He already looked pretty good out there to me.”
The win helped the Bruins start new head coach Jim Montgomery off on the right foot. Pastrnak noted that every coach has a different system, and a new system requires some acclimation.
“It’s going to take time for everybody to get used to it, but so far we’ve been working on it every day,” he said. “The fastest way you get to know the system is in the games. That’s where you get the biggest tests. … I think we’re just going to get better and better in the system.”
The good news is that a win makes acclimating feel better, even if it wasn’t perfectly clean.
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“Obviously can be a big part of how things move forward for the next couple weeks,” Pastrnak said. “So that’s a good thing we did today, and obviously a big start for our group. Have to make sure we fix a couple mistakes, wasn’t clean, but it was good for us that we are able to win these kind of games when we are short by a couple key players.”
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