The Bruins beat a playoff team. Jeremy Swayman played more like a No. 1 goalie. But the most promising thing to come from Saturday’s late-night 5-1 win over the Canucks in Vancouver was the play of David Pastrnak.
The 2024-25 Bruins season has had a lot of false starts and promising seeds that never flowered. But Boston’s best hope for putting this season back on the path it hoped for would be No. 88 in the black and gold jersey to be turned back into David Pastrnak.
Saturday was at least encouraging.
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Pastrnak has just 11 goals and 32 points this season, which puts him well below the 49 goals and 100 points he’s averaged over the last years. But his goal and three assists performance Saturday was his best game of the season. It’s part of an improving December where he has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in seven games and at least one point in six of those seven.
“It seemed like he had the puck a lot, making the right plays. He executed at a high level tonight,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “His game is all around. He can score. He can pass. Getting him going in the right direction is a huge boost for our team.”
The three assists put him over 400 in his career. A year ago, after David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron retired, Pastrnak had the best passing season of his career with 63 assists.
“I’m a goal scorer, but so far I haven’t been this year. I haven’t gotten the looks,” Pastrnak said. “I try to look to make plays. I don’t mind passes.”
Swayman said seeing Pastrnak get going which got the offense going was encouraging.
“He’s so talented and so skilled. He works on his game more than any of us,” Swayman said. “It’s really awesome to see him get rewarded.”
