Thumb shelves Pasta at least two weeks
Bruins leading scorer David Pastrnak is going to be sidelined for at least two weeks.
According to general manager Don Sweeney, Pastrnak injured his left thumb leaving a team event at 11:30 p.m. Sunday with his teammates. The 22-year-old fell while walking to a “transportation vehicle” and injured his thumb.
He had surgery yesterday morning and will miss the next two weeks before being re-evaluated.
“The repair was successful,” Sweeney said. “David will be out of the lineup for the next two weeks, then we’ll likely have a more definitive timeline of when he will return to play.
“After the game on Sunday, David and several of his teammates attended a sponsorship dinner. At 11:30, David reported to me that as he and his teammates were approaching their transportation location he fell and injured his thumb.
“He met with medical staff (Monday) . … It was apparent he needed something done right away.”
Pastrnak (31-35-66) led the team in both goals and total points entering last night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks at the Garden. He was the Bruins’ lone representative at last month’s NHL All-Star Game.
David Krejci will replace Pastrnak on the top power play unit. Peter Cehlarik slides back in on Krejci’s line with Jake DeBrusk, where Pastrnak had been skating for the past two contests. The rest of the lines stay intact.
After last night’s game, the Bruins embark on a fivegame road trip out west, starting with Anaheim. They will be without their leading scorer for at least the duration of that trip.
“We went through some of these challenges earlier in the year,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said before last night’s game. “(Patrice Bergeron) was out, (Zdeno Chara), all of our core players. We got through it. Someone else will have to step up within the group. We don’t expect one player to deliver what Pasta has at this point, but we’ll look at different people there who have had some level of success, see if they can fill some of the void.”
Danton Heinen said he was at the team event Sunday but didn’t know what happened to Pastrnak.
“I didn’t see it,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what actually happened.”
Pastrnak has scored eight goals and notched 10 assists since the start of 2019. He’s one of just two Bruins, along with Krejci, to have played in every game this season. That streak is over. “It’s what’s in front of us,” Cassidy said. “We’ve relied on team defense and goaltending, more the defensive side for the most part this year. We were hoping when we got healthy we’d start scoring a bit more, I think we did, but I think this team’s used to playing in tight games when scoring hasn’t been there and we’ve still managed to win.”
Balanced scoring
With Pastrnak out for some time, the Bruins might get a chance to figure out its scoring balance issue, as odd as it sounds.
The B’s leading scorer has been on the ice for 44 percent of the team’s 95 even strength goals, and the catalyst of their power play.
It might be a chance for DeBrusk to finally find his groove, or someone like Cehlarik or Trent Frederic to emerge. Regardless, they were going to need something, whether they add someone at the trade deadline or not.
On the horizon?
If they do add a piece, Cassidy isn’t against it, he implied after Sunday’s game.
“Yes, there’s times we seem to fall a goal short,” Cassidy said. “So we could use that extra punch. Third-line center, I do believe, we’ve been looking at different options in there all year. To have a consistent guy in there every night would probably make it easier on everybody. Yes, there’s days it looks like we could use a piece.”