Keep Pastrnak on top line HERALD FILE
Dropping rising star wouldn’t be so Nifty
Every time I hear someone suggest dropping David Pastrnak to the second line as a solution to the Bruins’ stagnant secondary scoring the same question pops into my head: “Am I a fool for not seeing that as being a good idea and in fact seeing it as a potentially destructive move?”
For one thing, it doesn’t seem to matter how far apart Brad Marchand and Pastrnak are on the ice, their heads always seem to be in the same place, two brains in perfect synch. Same for Patrice Bergeron and his two wings.
No one else is going to cash in on Marchand’s highvelocity passes, perfectly timed and located, as well as Pastrnak. So separating them will result in leaving too many goals on the ice and the Bruins’ margin for error is too slim to take that risk.
The whole is even greater than the sum of its parts with the Bruins’ top line.
So robbing Peter to pay Paul at the very best would seem like a wash and at worst could cripple the Bruins’ already tenuous ability to score goals.
Since I never have claimed to be James George Aylwin Creighton, I decided to seek out a far more knowledgeable source on the topic of goal scoring and headed to Bentley Arena on the campus of Bentley University for the inaugural “Alumni Faceoff Classic for Heroes” where the Bruins alumni faced the Rangers alumni, played for the benefit of the Warrior for Life Fund and Navy SEAL Hockey Foundation programs.
The back of Rick Middleton’s hockey card reveals him as an expert on the topic of scoring goals. Nifty spent two seasons with the Rangers, 12 with the Bruins. During one six-season stretch (1979-1984) with the B’s he averaged 45 goals from the right wing position now manned by Pastrnak on the top line.
A perennial contender for the Lady Byng Trophy for excellence and sportsmanship, Middleton won it in 1980-81, the year he scored a career-best 51 goals. Good guys continue to do good things well after their playing days and Middleton and the rest of his alumni teammates are doing great charity work and having fun in the process.
Before I even got around to asking him about the notion of dropping Pastrnak from the first line, Nifty touched on one reason it would be a bad idea at the mere mention of the name Pastrnak.
“That line,” Nifty said. “They know where he’s going to be and he’s in the right spot a lot of the time and he’s got good hockey sense. He’s got instinct.”
So I’m not crazy for thinking the Bruins would be crazy to break up the en fuego line?
“No, I don’t think they’re going to do that,” Middleton said. “It never works in hockey. You can’t spread the wealth. Even in youth hockey you can’t put your better players on different lines because you’re not playing with people your caliber. You don’t get the puck back. I’ve never been a believer in that. You’ve got to go with your best.”
I felt like lacing up a pair of skates to do a victory lap around the Bentley Arena rink but decided to spare the crowd the agony. Once a bender, always a bender. Nobody needed to see that. The crowd did enjoy older gentlemen than typically don hockey sweaters getting up and down the ice. Their speed is gone but glimpses of their skill shook cobwebs from memories.
Announcers Andy Brickley, eschewing a helmet in favor of a ballcap, and Bob Beers glided on the ice as smoothly as they speak. Ray Bourque still handles the puck with flair. For the Rangers, Ron Duguay still captures a crowd’s attention with his loud presence and Stephane Matteau and goalie Steve Valiquette still look like giants on ice.
They all wore their Original Six sweaters with pride, although they watch others wearing sweaters far more than they do so themselves these days. Middleton and his pals watch Bruins games at TD Garden from the newly located alumni suite, on the sixth floor.
“We used to be on the ninth floor, but they’re building a club up there so they moved us down,” he said.
It puts him farther from his No. 16 jersey hanging in the Garden rafters since it was retired during a ceremony last season, but no complaints about that from Nifty.
“Much better view,” he said.
Middleton, 65, viewed Saturday’s alumni game mostly from the home bench at Bentley Arena thanks to a balky back, but did skate one first-period shift before donning a sport coat to help the coaching staff. He plans to do the same Sunday at Madison Square Garden for an alumni rematch. It’s been 45 years since Middleton made his debut with the Rangers and he’s looking forward to posing at center ice for a picture with longtime friend and former Rangers teammate Ron Greschner, who broke into the NHL on the Rangers with Middleton in 1974.
On the topic of rematches, Nifty said he didn’t think the Bruins had Saturday night’s game circled on their calendars as a means of exacting revenge against the Blues, who celebrated the organization’s first Stanley Cup title on TD Garden ice after a 4-1 victory last June.
“It’s really just another game,” Middleton said before heading for the bench in street clothes for the start of the exhibition’s second period. “The press will blow it up, but that was last year. They’re not going to prove anything by beating them. It’s just another two points that they want to win.”
Really? Doesn’t the memory rev their adrenaline and sharpen their focus?
“They certainly don’t want to lose to them,” Middleton conceded. “Maybe a little payback, a little payback.”