Pastrnak on the doorstep
Bruins winger one shy of second 100-pointer
For the most part, the Bruins offense stayed stuck in the mud in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers at the Garden, which also left David Pastrnak stuck at 99 points with 11 games remaining in the regular season.
If things go as they typically do when Pastrnak stares down that Flyers’ “flying P” logo, he’ll top off the tank at 100 or more Saturday afternoon when the Bruins visit the south end of Broad Street.
Philadelphia is where the rookie Pastrnak, then 18½ years old, scored his first two NHL goals on Jan. 10, 2015. Some 10 years later, in 30 regular-season games, he has piled up 26 goals and 43 points against the Flyers. The kind of numbers that might cause the Philly PD to identify him as a public health and safety risk when the Bruins’ charter touches down Friday afternoon.
On the verge of being the first Bruin since Adam Oates (1992-94) to put together back-to-back 100-point seasons, Pastrnak on Thursday posted a rare 0-0—0 (four shots) on home ice. He also finished minus-3. Not a good night for the All-Star right winger.
But then, it wasn’t a good night for anyone on Causeway Street who wasn’t wearing a Broadway Blueshirt.
“We should be able to gain middle ice a lot,” noted coach Jim Montgomery, dismissing the suggestion that some of his players looked tired on what was clearly a dud of a night. “We just weren’t attacking it.”
The Rangers weren’t barreling up and down the ice either. They were helped immensely by Bruins defensive gaffes on their first two goals, both scored by Artemi Panarin. The Russian-born left winger finished with a hat trick, boosting his point total to 97 — right there on Pastrnak’s heels.
Unlike Pastrnak, the clever forward, one of the game’s skilled wizards, never has finished with 100 points in a season. Which only adds some context to what Pastrnak has been able to do.
“I think they are similar in a lot of ways,” offered Montgomery. “I think Pasta is more of a shot-first guy and Panarin is more of a pass-first guy. I think that’s the biggest difference. But they both drive offense for their respective teams. As wingers, they have the puck a lot, almost like a center does.”
Once he reaches the mark, Pastrnak will be the first winger in Black and Gold history to pair up 100-point seasons. The slickpassing Oates was a center, as was Barry Pederson, who notched 107 points in 198283 and followed with 116. Popular wingers Ken Hodge and Rick Middleton each had a pair of 100-point seasons here, but not consecutively.
Pastrnak has 663 points dating to the start of 2016-17, when he first played the bulk of an NHL season. In those seven-plus seasons, entering Friday, he is tied for second in goals (320) with Alex Ovechkin and Leon Draisaitl, behind only Toronto’s Auston Matthews (356). Pastrnak’s 663 points ranked No. 6, a notch below Panarin, who reached 681 with the hat trick.
In the 30 years that have passed since Oates paired up his 142-point and 112point seasons, Joe Thornton and Brad Marchand are the only Bruins other than Pastrnak to reach 100 — one time each.
Joe Juneau had a 102-point season in 1992-93, the same season as Oates’s 142, back when they and Dmitri “Hoss” Kvartalnov comprised the high-riding Bonanza Line.
Leaguewide Nikita Kucherov (118), Nathan MacKinnon (117), and Connor McDavid (112) beat Pastrnak to the 100 circle this season. All three reached the mark last year, too. In fact, the incomparable McDavid has done it four seasons in a row, approaching the rarefied air we knew around here — and perhaps didn’t appreciate enough? — with Phil Esposito (five straight) and Bobby Orr (six).
Oates joined an esteemed group of forwards, including Doug Gilmour, Pavel Bure, Jeremy Roenick, and Mark Recchi, to go back-to-back in the two seasons he did. Pederson, dealt to Vancouver two seasons after his last 100-point season, was joined by six others — some of the greatest names in NHL history — who reached 100 with him.
Wayne Gretzky, Michel Goulet, Peter Stastny, Mike Bossy, Jari Kurri, and Mark Messier. Pederson is the only one not to have his likeness etched on a glass plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Pastrnak, who finished last season with 61-52—113, is only 27 years old — five years Panarin’s junior, by the way — and looks destined for a spot of his own in the Hall.
No one in the last two years has equaled his 105 goals.
Now it’s on to the Wells Fargo Center, Pastrnak’s home away from home — and away from home once more if we’re counting the village of Havirov, Czechia. The goals and points just keep coming, like they haven’t around here for a very long time.