BRIGHTON, Mass. -- Just when it seemed like things were coming together for the Bruins, they fell into another ditch. Literally.
In a surprise announcement on Tuesday morning, the Bruins said David Pastrnak will be out at least two weeks -- and probably much longer than that -- with a left thumb tendon injury that required surgical repair on Monday. According to Bruins GM Don Sweeney, the 22-year-old star winger and All-Star was hurt when he fell this weekend after a team-sponsor dinner with a number of his Bruins teammates.
Sweeney said the carefree, energetic Pastrnak was very apologetic after the incident.
“After the game on Sunday [a 2-1 overtime victory over the Avalanche at TD Garden], David and some of his teammates attended a sponsor dinner," said Sweeney. "At about 11:30 p.m. David reported to me that as they were walking to their transportation location that he fell and injured his thumb. We’ll know better in two weeks what the definitive timeline is going to be, but he’s expected to return and play with us [this season].
“I met with David [on Monday] morning and he was extremely upset and disappointed, and he feels like he let everybody down even though it was an accident. He was apologetic and was heartfelt in trying to explain that an accident had happened. I said the same thing to him: ‘They do [happen].' ”
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That leaves the Bruins without their most dynamic offensive player and goal-scorer; he was on pace for 45 goals and 97 points this season. Even with him, the B's are well into the bottom third of the NHL in even-strength scoring and are overly reliant on their power play to provide offense. Pastrnak's injury, and the anticipated offensive hit they'll take, means they're going to have to hunker down defensively for a while.
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"After the disappointment [passes], it’s a challenge now," said coach Bruce Cassidy. "We’re taking our leading scorer out of the lineup when we’re already struggling to generate enough offense as it is. So now you’re going to the drawing board. What’s the best way to go about replacing his production? Do we have to tighten up more defensively instead of worrying about the lost goals, or are we going to force other people into an offensive role to bring what [Pastrnak] brought?
“Those are the challenges as a coach. The easiest way to go about is to defend, because that’s always been the culture here, but we still want to score goals. We have players here that can, so we just have to find the right formula [without Pastrnak].”
It shouldn’t be impossible for the Bruins to tighten things up, considering that they’ve been one of the stingiest defensive teams in the Eastern Conference all season, but generating offense is going to be a challenge without their biggest game-breaker. It even looked in recent days like the B’s might be able to surpass for the Maple Leafs for second in the Atlantic Division and perhaps improve their position down the stretch ahead of the postseason.
But all of that is now in pretty serious doubt until they get their sea legs without Pastrnak, and until they find out exactly how long he’s going to be out of the lineup.
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