What Winning Gold Medal Meant To Bruins Star David Pastrnak

David Pastrnak’s season with the Bruins ended abruptly when the Florida Panthers ousted Boston in the second straight postseason.

After the Bruins’ early exit from the NHL playoffs, Pastrnak and teammate Pavel Zacha traveled to Prague to join the Czech national team for the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship tournament. The Bruins duo won the gold medal when Czechia defeated Switzerland 2-0 on Sunday.

“Boy, this was insane honestly,” Pastrnak told “Spittin’ Chiclets” on Tuesday how it felt to win a gold medal in his home country. “The fans, you could see the whole country was leaving the tournament and overall, the whole three weeks, they were making the hockey really enjoyable for the whole country.

“(Monday), honestly, it was one of my better days. To see and bring all these people to the old square (for the celebration in Prague). It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I needed it, so, it was fun.”

Pastrnak and Zacha each scored a goal in the tournament and Pastrnak knew when they joined the team they would be taking someone else’s spot on the roster.

“It’s very easy to be hit and miss when you come to the World Championship … especially for a couple of guys coming in late from the NHL,” Pastrnak said. “You have to kick somebody out and oh my God, I think we were the first team who had Black Aces for the whole tournament.

“We had like seven of them. … We had one guy we called the captain of the Black Aces, so he was the Gold Ace. He hadn’t played the whole tournament, and then he got called up for the final. They couldn’t practice with us. … So they were just pretty much for weeks sitting on a couch just trying to bring the atmosphere, but he got called up, and he did an unbelievable job.”

You can check out the entire interview here.