BOSTON — In a matter of seconds David Pastrnak changed the narrative. Around the series, about his play and about the Bruins’ 2023-24 season.
His goal less than two minutes into overtime of Game 7 on Saturday night, cast all of it in a different light and pushed the Bruins past the Maple Leafs into Game 7 of the NHL playoffs.
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“It’s a huge moment, obviously,” said Pastrnak, whose goal was the third fastest Game 7 overtime goal in history. “A lot of excitement. A little relief as well.”
If Game 7s are a balance beam, an overtime in Game 7 is a tightrope. The consequences of falling off are always awful. For this Bruins team, it would have been particularly so. They were facing back-to-back playoff collapses that would have cemented their legacy as chokers. Instead, they stuck the landing and advanced.
It was a defining moment for Pastrnak, who’d had a rough series through six games. If the Bruins had lost he’d have been the public face of their historic failure, a highly-paid star, who didn’t deliver when it mattered most. Even Jim Montgomery, whose aggressive positivity has defined his two-year tenure, called Pastrnak out after Game 6.
“Your best players need to be your best players this time of year,” Montgomery said. “Pasta needs to step up.”
The coach hasn’t employed that kind of tactic often. And Pastrnak rarely gets publicly criticized. There was some question of what his reaction would be and how he’d respond.
“I told him if I’m the coach and you were me, I would say the same thing,” Pastrnak said. “I had no problem with him saying that. I admitted I need to be better. I still have ways to be better.”
His winning goal gave him a chance to try to continue that.
“I thought he was dynamic tonight,” Montgomery said. “He was creating shots. Taking what was available and not forcing things.”
The game, at least through 60 minutes of regulation, still wasn’t peak Pastrnak. He remained a little tentative and not nearly as crisp or clever as he usually is. But none of that matters now.
Hampus Lindholm, another maligned Bruin, sent the puck into the zone. It caromed to Pastrnak, who’d gotten behind the defense. Flicking his stick like a fencer, Pastrnak moved the puck from his forehand to his backhand. Ilya Samsonov never had a chance. Pastrnak flipped the puck over the Toronto goalie into the net and redefined his legacy in the series all in one motion.
This is no longer the series where Pastrnak struggled, but the one where he was the hero.
It wasn’t just his own story that was changed. Pastrnak’s goal changed the narrative for everyone. Instead of talking about the historic implications of a collapse or whether Jim Montgomery might get fired because of it, the Bruins can talk about Florida. Their redemption in the first round gave them a chance at getting more against the Panthers. They earned the right to never know how bad it would have been.
“If you lose, you catch a lot of heat and if you win, then nobody talks about dropping a couple of games,” Brad Marchand said. “It’s happened multiple times in the past where we’ve been up 3-1 and we’ve won the series and no one said a word about it. You talk about the win. That’s just how it goes.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
