The erstwhile David Pastrnak was back at Bruins practice for exactly one day on Monday and already making his presence felt with a little good-natured social media mischief.
The NHL’s leading scorer returned to hit the ice at the Maple Leafs practice facility on Monday afternoon for his first time skating with the team in almost two weeks. Pastrnak landed in quarantine 11 days ago after being in close proximity with somebody that tested positive for COVID-19, but was cleared in time to travel with the team to the protective bubble in Toronto.
Things clearly appeared to go well for the Bruins right winger after jumping back in with the team and his regular spot on the Perfection Line, so he had a little fun with the ubiquitous Maple Leafs logos at the practice rink once he jumped on social media a little later.
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Pastrnak took a photo the Bruins posted on the team twitter account of him all masked up in the practice dressing room and photo-shopped red slash logos through the Maple Leafs logos in the Toronto dressing room. It ended up looking like some kind of cross between Original Six Old Time Hockey meets the Ghostbusters.
He didn’t just stop there, though.
Then Pastrnak sent the picture in a message on twitter to Ontario native and Maple Leafs super-fan Justin Bieber.
It certainly won’t be as painful for the Biebs as the time Pastrnak dropped six points on the Maple Leafs in a playoff game like he did a couple of years ago during an all-out offensive explosion, or when he sent a chirpy tweet to Bieber after the Bruins beat Toronto in Game 7 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
But clearly the Bruins winger doesn’t want to pass up a Black and Golden chance to troll the famous Leafs diehard fan.
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The best part: This is all a good sign that Pastrnak has his usual swagger restored despite missing nearly all of Phase 3 while stuck in quarantine. That’s going to spell trouble for the rest of the Eastern Conference with Pastrnak getting his mojo going while looking to prove a point after falling short last postseason while playing through a self-inflicted thumb injury.
He's also clearly getting in a little mental warfare just in case the Bruins face the Maple Leafs again in these playoffs after dispatching them in the first round in each of the last two postseasons.
The Bruins will play an exhibition game this week against the Columbus Blue Jackets before opening up with a round-robin matinee against the Flyers on Sunday, giving Pastrnak a week to catch up on the ice and get ready to do some damage on the playoffs.
