BRIGHTON, Mass – The good news is that David Pastrnak’s current goal-scoring drought isn’t nearly as bad as last season at this exact time when he went 17 consecutive games without lighting the lamp.
But Pastrnak, 21, is at ten games and counting without scoring, though he does has seven assists in that fallow span including a nice defense-to-offense play that set up Brad Marchand’s goal earlier this week in Brooklyn.
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So it shall be that electric Pastrnak hopes to end that scoreless stretch in Boston’s final weekend of games vs. the Hurricanes and Penguins prior to a five-day bye and get busy producing again with his elite linemates in Patrice Bergeron and Marchand.
“I am not worried about it. We are winning and we are playing great hockey,” said Pastrnak, who is still a plus-1 in the 10-game stretch with no goals. “[Winning] is way more fun than bringing yourself down about a scoring drought. I think we are playing great hockey, and I’m having as much as if I was scoring in every game.”
Some of it is about burying some of the chances he’s getting with the B’s top power-play unit still setting him up for one-timer blasts from the dot, and with it looking like Bergeron and Marchand are starting to pick up their offensive pace again.
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That line picked up a couple of goals against the Islanders Tuesday after getting scored on for the first time this season during even strength, and Pastrnak himself finished with five shots on net. Clearly, the signs were there for a talented player about to bust out of a slump. Now it’s just a matter of letting the skill take over and finishing some of the chances that he’s simply missed during a lull in his normal level of production.
The bottom line is that he’s still on pace for 32 goals and 76 points even with “the slump” and the Bruins are winning, so this might be just the time of year where his offense goes dry for a little bit. Or it might just be a coincidence that it’s happened again right around the holidays while he's being relied on to be one of Boston’s premier offensive players.
Either way, there is little doubt an offensive explosion will be forthcoming for “Pasta” and he’ll have the same happy-go-lucky smile on his face as he did in talking about the drought this week.