Is David Pastrnak Fully Back? Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy Weighs In

BOSTON — One thing that might get lost in the excitement of Tuukka Rask’s return to the Boston Bruins was the fact that David Pastrnak looked like the best player on the ice for much of Thursday’s tilt.

The Bruins welcomed the Philadelphia Flyers to TD Garden and extended their win streak to four after Pastrnak netted his 11th career hat trick in the 3-2 win. The 25-year-old has started to look like himself against after a slow start to the season and after Thursday’s masterpiece now has seven goals over his last four games.

Pastrnak’s recent outburst certainly has helped the squad as they’ve won seven of their last eight, and in doing so the right winger has impressed head coach Bruce Cassidy.

“Let’s string it together, he’s looked good recently for sure. He certainly looks like he’s turned the corner. Sometimes that’s what happens with goal scorers, one goes in and it’s just a weight off of their shoulder,” Cassidy said. “They’re going to press every player that plays a position when things aren’t going their way or what their biggest ask of them is. We’ll press in certain areas. He may have been going through that, but certainly tonight it looked like he could have had five or six goals to be honest with you.

“Enjoy those nights when they happen. He did. He was out there at the end trying to help us preserve a lead, so we trust him to play away from the puck as well. But tonight was his night and it was nice to see. The puck was finding him and we needed all three of them. Hopefully he is back feeling great about his game, it sure looks like his game is in order.”

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Hopefully this is just the beginning of one of Pastrnak’s patented scorched earth streaks and not the end. One positive tidbit to take away from the young winger’s performance against Flyers is the fact that he dominated on the power play.

Two of Pastrnak’s goals Thursday game on the advantage to bring his season total to seven in 34 games played this season. To put that into context, last season he netted just five power play goals in 48 games of action. When he took home the Rocket Richard trophy for the 2019-20 season after leading the league with 48 goals, the power play played a massive role as he also led the league in the category in goals scored on a power play with 20.

Things seem to be moving in the right direction for Pastrnak and the Bruins.