David Pastrnak and Team Czechia will open the Olympics on Thursday when they face Team Canada. Pastrnak will be going up against his former Boston Bruins teammate, Brad Marchand. As far as playing for Czechia, Pastrnak is living out a childhood dream.
Pastrnak is one of the leaders for Czechia at the Olympics, and he'll have to play without Bruins teammate Pavel Zacha, who has been ruled out of the games. Regardless, Pastrnak's other teammates speak highly of him and even compared him to an idol of theirs growing up.
Jaromir Jagr was a hero of a lot of Czech players growing up, and why not? He was a prolific goalscorer in the NHL as he scored 766 goals during his career over 1,733 games, and he also picked up 1,155 assists. As for Pastrnak, who has 413 career goals in 808 NHL games, he was drawing comparisons to Jagr from his teammates.
"He's at the Jagr level, for sure," said former NHL star Jakub Voracek.
"He's just a guy enjoying the moment," Team Czechia forward Tomas Hertl said. "He's never nervous; that's probably why he is so good."
Being compared to Jagr is some comparison for Pastrnak, who has a realistic chance to pass Jagr in terms of NHL goals before his career is over. Pastrnak is only 29 years old.
Bruins in the Olympics
Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju and Finland opened the Olympic schedule on Wednesday, and was followed by Boston forward Elias Lindholm and Sweden. Defenseman Hampus Lindholm was scratched for Sweden's first game.
On Thursday, things will really heat up with Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman, and Team USA will open up against Latvia and Bruins prospect, Dans Locmelis. Also suiting up for Latvia is Florida Panthers forward Sandis Vilmanis, who, by now, you know, laid an elbow to the head of McAvoy last week. Don't expect any retaliation until April when the Black and Gold visit Florida.