BOSTON — David Pastrnak made his return to the Bruins lineup in Thursday night’s 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils following a successful World Junior Championship tournament with the Czech Republic. It was the sixth NHL game of his career and first since Dec. 4.
“I think what we’re trying to see here is where he is in his game,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said before the win over the Devils. “Nothing specific as far as does he need to do this or do that. You know he’s 18 years old, he’s having a great year in Providence, he had a good world junior tournament.
“Again, we have four games here to assess him and then decide. … He does bring speed, he does bring a lot of things that I know, whether it’s this year or next or whatever, he’ll be an NHLer. We just gotta figure out whether he can play on a nightly basis and whether he’s capable of being ready to play in this league right now. I think that’s the big picture of it all.”
Here’s a quick analysis of Pastrnak’s return to the B’s lineup.
Linemates/Opposition
Pastrnak began the game on the top line alongside fellow Czech forward David Krejci and Brad Marchand, as expected. Pastrnak played 11:30 of his 13:35 of even-strength ice time with Krejci and 11:32 with Marchand, and the Bruins had a shot attempt differential of plus-6 when those three forwards were on the ice. The majority of Pastrnak’s even-strength shifts were played with the Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid pairing.
“He’s a great player, and I could play with him, I just try to do my best,” Pastrnak said when asked about playing with Krejci. “I enjoyed every shift I’ve been with the guy.”
Here’s a look at the three Devils forwards and defensemen who spent the most ice time against Pastrnak, per Natural Stat Trick.
“It was a good experience seeing those guys from my country to play against,” Pastrnak said. “I’m just going to say I enjoyed it and I’m trying to play my best.”
Even Strength
Pastrnak is able to punish opponents off the rush because of his elite speed and ability to finish scoring chances with his excellent shot. He didn’t have too many of those opportunities Thursday, but he was able to cleanly enter the attacking zone on several occasions by getting the puck in the neutral zone and using his quickness to skate up ice toward goal.
“Pastrnak, his skating tonight put their (defensemen) on their heels,” Julien said.
Pastrnak had the puck on a 2-on-1 in the first period and waited a little too long to decide to shoot, which allowed a Devils defenseman to use his stick to deflect the shot into the protective netting. Pastrnak finished with four shots on goal, was a plus-3 Corsi (on ice for 14 Bruins shots, 11 against) and started all of his shifts in the attacking zone, which is no surprise.
Special Teams
The Bruins earned a power play just 1:09 into the opening period, and Pastrnak was part of the first unit. He was up front with Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic, while Torey Krug and David Krejci were at the points.
Pastrnak also was on the ice for a 22-second shift when Milan Lucic snapped a nine-game goal-less drought with a power-play goal. Pastrnak finished with 1:29 of power-play ice time and zero penalty kill shifts.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
