David Pastrnak’s quiet series against Panthers continues to be a head-scratcher for Bruins
"It's just a matter of time. He's just too good.”
The Bruins couldn’t have penned a better script to close out their opening playoff series on Wednesday night.
Mired in a tug-of-war with the Panthers throughout their Game 5 bout on Causeway Street, a power-play bid at 16:25 in the third period gave Boston the opportunity it needed to deliver a coup de grace against its first-round foe.
In a game where seasons are often decided by the fortuitous bounce of a fluttering puck, pooling one’s hopes into a single power-play sequence might seem foolhardy.
But then again, fortunes tend to fall in your favor when you have David Pastrnak uncorking howitzers on the man advantage.
Pastrnak’s potent shot from the left circle has splintered some of the stingiest PK structures in the league this season.
But against a pedestrian Panthers shorthanded squad (23rd in NHL), Pastrnak — much like his team — couldn’t close this chapter in Boston’s promising Cup run.
“I thought our power play could have sealed the game there, the last power play,” Montgomery said following Boston’s 4-3 overtime loss on Wednesday night. “ I don’t even know if we got a good look on it, to be honest.”
Boston only generated one shot on goal against Sergei Bobrovsky in that late-game power play. Pastrnak, boasting 18 power-play tallies on his stat line this season, was tagged with a costly giveaway during his nearly 90-second shift. He didn’t land a shot against Florida’s netminder.
It was a disheartening showing from Boston’s top offensive conduit in Pastrnak, who has been limited to two goals and zero helpers over five games in this series.
Over his 23:47 of ice time in Game 5, Pastrnak was held to four shots on goal — including just one puck fired in against Bobrovsky over 5:52 of power-play reps.
Pastrnak’s scoring outage against a porous Panthers defense has been an outlier in a playoff round where other forwards like Taylor Hall (five goals, eight points) and Brad Marchand (four goals, six points) have feasted.
Further compounding Boston’s woes have been uncharacteristic lapses with puck management. The Bruins coughed up 17 giveaways in Game 5 to a desperate Panthers club, two more turnovers than the on-ice boondoggle that played out in a lopsided Game 2 defeat a week ago.
Pastrnak surrendered the puck a team-high four times in Wednesday’s defeat, headlined by his errant pass in on the man advantage that chewed valuable time off the clock by way of an easy clear from Gustav Forsling.
Of course, some added context is necessary when gauging giveaways and how much of an indictment it is on an uber-skilled player.
Pastrnak paced the pack among all NHLers during the regular season with 109 giveaways over 82 contests. The other four skaters who hit triple digits in the same category? Evgeni Malkin (105), Artemi Panarin (102), Leon Draisaitl (102), and Erik Karlsson (101).
Players with high-end talent in the offensive zone are going to hold onto the puck and trade chances at a far greater rate in today’s NHL, especially if those risky seam passes or dekes down low lead to pucks sailing into twine.
For every flubbed feed or failed zone entry, players like Pastrnak or Draisaitl tend to atone for their miscues with plenty of tangible production.
A team anchored by stout goaltending and a structured defense like the Bruins can tolerate Pasrnak’s turnovers, so long as he’s consistently etching his name into the scoresheet.
So far, that give-and-take approach with Pastrnak’s game has yet to benefit Boston against the Panthers.
“The puck’s not going in right now for him,” Montgomery said of Pastrnak. “It’s just a matter of time. I thought he worked really hard, I thought he won a lot of battles. I thought he was more involved, maybe than he was in the first two games at home. Like, it’s just a matter of time. He’s just too good.”
Montgomery’s unwavering confidence in Pastrnak is well-placed, as it should be for any player who lit the lamp 61 times during regular-season action.
Even in Boston’s doomed overtime on Wednesday, Pastrnak came within inches of erasing his quiet stat line with a booming one-timer off the rush.
A timely stop by Bobrovsky withstood Pastrnak’s blast, with the puck skittering just wide of a series-clinching tally.
Pastrnak, much like Boston’s netminder in Linus Ullmark, tends to have the “mind of a goldfish” when his individual game falls below his lofty standards.
Just with a bit more of a bite.
Following a two-shot performance in last week’s Game 2 defeat, Pastrnak attempted 13 shots on goal in Boston’s 4-2 win at FLA Live Arena two days later — with one of his seven attempts on net beating Alex Lyon off a breakaway bid.
“He’s gonna start smelling blood,” Montgomery said of Pastrnak on Saturday following his Game 3 strike. “He’s like a Great White — smells blood in the water.”
The Bruins are holding out hope for a similar script to play out during their final trek to South Florida on Friday night.
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