David Pastrnak had been quietly struggling in his last few games, but he’s seemed to have found his groove of late.
The Bruins winger had a goal and an assist in Boston’s 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at KeyBank Center.
Pastrnak was hot to start the season after missing the first month due to hip surgery, but since had cooled down and struggled to find the net.
Bruce Cassidy shed light on what maybe was going wrong, and what he liked about Pastrnak’s game Thursday.
“The other night, he freely admitted, we were joking that we gotta find the key to his handcuffs,” Cassidy said. “He just didn’t have it for whatever reason. … Today he just felt much more comfortable, hitting his shot through the neutral zone making plays, some sauce passes, they’re on the tape. One-on-one moves — the puck’s sticking to him like he used to. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come because he’s fought it a bit lately. Maybe this is what he needs, a game like this to get him going a little bit. Even his legs looked better tonight than the other night, had more pace through the neutral zone as well.”
The Stanley Cup playoffs are less than a month away, and if Pastrnak can play how he did Thursday night for the rest of the season and into a Cup run, he’ll certainly be a threat.
