3 Bruins' takeaways from win over Rangers powered by David Pastrnak

Two teams on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture met at the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon with the Boston Bruins hosting the New York Rangers. Acquired Friday night from the Vancouver Canucks, J.T. Miller made his season debut for the visitors while the Bruins were hoping to bounce back from a dismal 6-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets Thursday night.

As has been the case multiple times this season, Boston followed up a bad performance with one of their better 60-minute efforts to even the season series with Rangers with the third and deciding game Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. Was it easy? No, but they got back to playing their structure and road the back of Jeremy Swayman between the pipes. Here are three takeaways from the Black and Gold's victory.

David Pastrnak continues his hot streak

There were not many better forwards in January than David Pastrnak. He carried over his offensive production to the first day of February with a hat trick and an assist, having a hand in four of the six Bruins goals.

He gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead late in the first period with a wrist shot by Igor Shesterkin, then he saved his final two goals for the third period to seal the win. Less than a minute after New York cut the deficit to 4-2 on the power play, Pastrnak beat Shesterkin with a slap shot from inside the blue line before sealing the win with an empty-net goal with 3:22 remaining. If they are going to make the playoffs, they'll have to do it on the back of Pastrnak.

Bruins score two.......... power play goals?

Yes, you did read that right. The Boston Bruins scored not one, but two power plays goals in the same game. See how much easier the game can be when you get production from the man advantage? The Rangers boast one of the better penalty kills in the NHL, but the Black and Gold found the back of the net in the first and second periods.

Charlie McAvoy ripped a slap shot past Shesterkin in the opening period with Pastrnak picking up his only assist in the game, then in the second period, Pavel Zacha was camped out in front of the net and had the puck found the way to his stick and he buried from in close for a 4-1 lead.

This still doesn't change the trade deadline path

A win is a win, but let's not overlook that the Rangers have been just as big of a disappointment this season as the Bruins. For the moment Boston moved back into the second wild-card spot, but that'll change before they take the ice against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at home and they'll be on the outside looking in, again.

A retool is needed and the path that the front office is going to take will likely be decided in a week after playing the Vegas Golden Knights at home before the 4 Nations Faceoff Break, but this team still is not a playoff team that can make any type of run in the spring. Retool.