Bruins takeaways: Pastrnak, blue line lead scoring explosion in win vs. Avs

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BOSTON -- The Bruins gave one of their most impressive performances of the 2021-22 NHL season Monday afternoon at TD Garden.

A three-goal second period paved the way for a 5-1 Bruins win over the Colorado Avalanche, who entered this game with the league's best record.

Up next for the Bruins is a six-game road trip that begins Thursday night when they travel to Seattle for a matchup against the Kraken.

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Here are three takeaways from Bruins-Avalanche.

1) David Pastrnak getting back on track

David Pastrnak was red-hot in January, scoring a league-leading 12 goals in 16 games as the Bruins finished the month with a 11-4-1 record. He started off February on fire, too, with four goals in the first two games. 

But then Pastrnak fell into a bit of a slump and went four consecutive games without a single point. The superstar right winger ended that drought with a game-winning goal in overtime against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, and he followed it up with two goals Monday.

The first came when Pastrnak pounced on a loose puck in the right faceoff circle and beat Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

He wasn't done, though. Shortly after the Avalanche got on the board with a second-period power-play goal by Nathan MacKinnon, Pastrnak gave the B's a 3-1 advantage with his second tally of the game.

Pastrnak now has a team-leading 27 goals in 50 games, including an astounding 19 goals in his last 22 games.

The Bruins' upcoming road trip includes matchups versus plenty of quality opponents. Boston needs Pastrnak to provide consistent scoring during this stretch to remain a threat for a top three finish in the Atlantic Division.

2) Blue line generates offense

One area where the Bruins could improve a bit is the blue line creating more scoring opportunities. Therefore, it was a pretty encouraging sign for Boston to see four of its five goals against the Avalanche get set up by defensemen.

Charlie McAvoy jumped into the play during the buildup to Pastrnak's first goal, retrieving the puck and firing a pass out in front of the net. Matt Grzelcyk started the leadup to Patrice Bergeron's goal by keeping the puck in the zone, getting it back and then making a nice pass to Taylor Hall, who found the B's captain for a quality scoring chance.

McAvoy picked up his second assist with a terrific keep-in that helped set up Jake DeBrusk's goal in the second period. 

In total, Bruins defensemen tallied four assists and threw nine shots on net.

The Bruins need better scoring depth to make a deep run in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that effort shouldn't be exclusive to the forwards. Boston's blue line absolutely needs to chip in more offensively, and Monday's performance was a good example of what can happen when these guys are aggressive in the attacking zone.

3) Can the power play build momentum?

The Bruins entered Monday with the league's seventh-best power play at 24.6 percent, even though this unit hadn't scored a single goal for five consecutive games dating back to Feb. 8.

Boston finally broke that drought when Charlie Coyle banked a shot off Kuemper and into the net during a third-period power play.

The B's tallied 15 shot attempts, 11 shots on net, 11 scoring chances and five high-danger chances, in addition to Coyle's goal, during 5:37 of power-play time Monday. The puck movement was fantastic, the Bruins were winning puck battles along the boards and players were aggressive in looking to shoot.

It was definitely the type of power-play performance that this team can build some momentum from as it begins a six-game road trip -- a stretch that also includes matchups against two top-10 penalty kills in the San Jose Sharks (4th) and Anaheim Ducks (10th).

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