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Red Sox legend Luis Tiant was a big fan of David Pastrnak’s penalty-shot goal
"I like this! Many pitchers been compared to me thru the years but never hockey that was beautiful."
Armed with a howitzer of a one-time shot, deceptive wrister and an assortment of dekes and dangles stored in his offensive-zone arsenal, Bruins winger David Pastrnak has already drawn plenty of comparisons to some of the best goal-scorers in NHL history.
But how about a legendary Red Sox pitcher?
Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery drew the parallels between Boston’s top scorer and a former Sox ace following Boston’s 3-2 win over the Predators on Saturday — a contest where Pastrnak lit the lamp with an illusory penalty-shot snipe.
“I liked it. Right in the top corner,” Montgomery said postgame. “He disguised it, kind of looked like Luis Tiant, right? He brought it back behind him.”
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Tiant, who pitched for the Red Sox from 1971-78, regularly befuddled batters with his unique windup — with the righty twisting his body until his back was fully facing home plate in order to disguise his upcoming pitch.
Similar to Tiant’s ability to keep the batter guessing, Pastrnak was able to shield his intended target from Predators goalie Juuse Saros before finding twine in the top corner.
Montgomery’s postgame comments caught the attention of Tiant, who praised Pastrnak’s goal on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I like this! Many pitchers been compared to me thru the years but never hockey that was beautiful,” Tiant posted.
Speaking after the Bruins’ victory over Nashville, Pastrnak acknowledged that the inspiration for his set of moves against Saros was actually rooted in another sport popular in his native Czech Republic.
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“This is a funny story. I don’t know if you know the sport floorball,” Pastrnak said postgame. “Floorball is a big sport in Europe. I promised my buddy that I will go practice with them. I went and, honestly, I was terrible. They all shoot like that.
“I tried to do that there and I was really bad at it, so I tried it on the ice and was much better with it on the ice than I was at floorball practice.”
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