Boston Bruins: David Pastrnak the stand-out despite loss to Tampa

It’s dangerous to get too into storylines this early in the season, but apparently Boston Bruins winger, David Pastrnak couldn’t care less.

David Pastrnak has had people talking all season, especially in Thursday’s shoot-out loss for the Boston Bruins against the Tampa Bay Lightning. His power-play goal and assist on Patrice Bergeron’s goal brought his points streak to five games.

While his teammates had some uneven moments, with the Lightning determined to give the TD Garden faithful a worthwhile Thursday night, Pastrnak gave a clinic in how to play exciting hockey.

From scoring goals to drawing penalties to keeping the play alive at all costs, it seemed that David Pastrnak was on a crusade to win the game for the Boston Bruins. His efforts, ultimately, were for naught, but he delivered a good game nonetheless.

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David Pastrnak first brought Boston Bruins fans to their feet midway through the first period as he scored his seventh goal of the season with a pretty power play snipe.

Bruins fans were gifted with swift hockey justice as Pastrnak struck only seven seconds into the man advantage, which came off of a penalty drawn by new acquisition Brett Ritchie.

The power play was textbook in its efficiency and excellence. Patrice Bergeron handily won the face-off, drawing the puck back to Brad Marchand who passed it right away to Torey Krug, who was looming just over the blue line. A shot from Krug was scooped up by Bergeron who shrugged the puck off to Pastrnak.

What followed was a highlight-reel goal.

Pastrnak skated into the pass and immediately rifled off a shot that Andrei Vasilevskiy had a zero-to-none chance of stopping.

And that wasn’t his only big play of the evening. He scored the game-tying goal with only minutes to spare in regulation (after drawing the power play that led to it in the first place) and also fed Bergeron the pass that led to the Bruins’ second goal of the evening, aside from being instrumental in several other offensive chances throughout the game.

Below is his game-tying goal, a.k.a. the Bruins’ last hope at getting at least a point out of the game.

And here’s the play that led to the Bergeron goal.

I mean, really. The man has been unstoppable.

He gave us a lot to talk about in his 21:34 of ice time against the Lightning.

David Pastrnak was simply electric on the ice for the Boston Bruins, finding passes from linemates Bergeron and Marchand with ease. He is just so aware of their placements on the ice and can seemingly predict when and where passes will be coming for him.

It seemed almost every other word coming out of Jack Edwards’s mouth was ‘Pastrnak’, delivered with the breathless excitement we know to expect from him. To be fair, Pastrnak’s play was well deserving of the hype.

His masterful game-tying goal was almost storybook. He drew a tripping penalty after an awkward knee-on-knee hit by Anthony Cirelli, and despite grimacing in pain immediately afterwards he returned to the ice to score his second of the game on a deflection from Bergeron.

He was the player to watch throughout the three periods of regulation, overtime and the shootout. While Krug and Bergeron also played very well, Pastrnak deserved first-star honors for his heroic performance.

That applies for every appearance that he’s made for the Bruins thus far this season. His four-goal effort on Monday against the Anaheim Ducks showed both the Bruins and the hockey world at large just how much upside he has as a young winger.

It’s like with every time he takes the ice he’s trying to prove to the club and to fans that he’s a good investment and that the Bruins were smart — and not to mention lucky — to keep him around.