BOSTON – While the rest of the offense struggles, David Pastrnak continues to carry things offensively for the Bruins on his slender 20-year-old shoulders.
The B’s right winger scored his 12th goal in his 16th game of the season in a 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Friday night. Only Sidney Crosby, Michael Grabner, Patrik Laine and Alex Ovechkin have more goals than him in the NHL. As a bonus, the goal he scored in the third period Friday night was more heart and desire than skill and saw Pastrnak simply fire home a loose puck in front of the net right after a power play had expired.
The four shot attempts in 21:52 of ice time for Pastrnak was a fair indication of how involved he was in the game and just how much the Bruins are riding him in these tight one-goal games where every point could be important at the end of the year. With seven goals in his past nine games, he's clearly doing as much as he can for a sputtering offense, but one man can’t carry a team on his shoulders when the rest of the offense has completely shut it down.
“I don’t know. I’m trying to help the team as much as I can. Some games, I’m going to score, some games, it’s other guys. As long as we’re going to pick up the two points, it doesn’t matter who is going to score,” said Pastrnak. “Ten games can be different. For us, we need to find a way to score goals. We need to do more in front of the net and get pucks through. One game, we have guys in front and can’t get the pucks through. In other games, we get the pucks through and we don’t have anyone in front. So we have to put this together, and then we’ll be fine.”
The Bruins also need to get some other players on the same points train as Pastrnak. Patrice Bergeron is on pace for 13 goals and 22 points this season, Ryan Spooner is on pace for 12 goals and 28 points, David Krejci is on pace for eight goals and 47 points, Matt Beleskey is on pace for eight goals and 20 points, Torey Krug is on pace for four goals and 23 points and David Backes is on pace for 19 goals and 38 points this season. At this point, we won’t even mention what Jimmy Hayes hasn’t done since Feb. 24 of last season.
Julien finally mixed things up and put Pastrnak with Krejci and Matt Beleskey while elevating Backes up with Bergeron and Marchand in the third period Friday night. He's still looking for ways to get all his other B’s firing on all cylinders as Pastrnak has been for this season.