"Obviously it's a huge honor, especially in an organization like the Bruins, you know, with a history like that. Obviously couldn't have done it without my teammates," said Pastrnak. "[Forty goals is] something I hadn't accomplished yet in my career, so obviously excited. But how I said, I couldn't have done it without my teammates and big thanks to them."
Perhaps the most telling part of Pastrnak's evening was the effort he showed on his second goal of the contest. Pastrnak, at the tail end of a shift, was patrolling the slot when he sneaked in from behind and lifted the stick of Montreal blue liner Jeff Petry just enough to allow Sean Kuraly to swoop in and steal away the puck.
The two then set off on a 2-on-1 up the ice, which ended with Kuraly delivering a perfect feed to Pastrnak, who buried it to put the Bruins ahead, 2-0, at 4:16 of the second.
"Sean and [Nordy] was in the shooting lane so Petry had to kind of skate away from the shooting lane and he came right to me so I just lifted his stick up and Sean picked up the puck and then we had a rush on the other end," said Pastrnak. "They have a pretty good back check so I always [try] to turn up on my forehand and get myself a better chance to score…[Kuraly] made a nice play and a good pass so I had mini breakaway and it's hard for a goalie to go the other way for him."
From beginning to end, the play showed off Pastrnak's growth - as both an all-around NHL player and one of the sport's blossoming superstars.
"That means he's moving forward," Cassidy said of Pastrnak hitting the 40-goal mark for the first time. "That's what you want, your younger players to keep taking steps…there's a lot of growth in his game that I like. Obviously, we want to see him continue to score; it helps us win games.
"So now he's at 40 and who knows what's next, right? There's still a lot of hockey left. I think the way he started this year, we all thought he'd be in that area anyway, challenging for 50. That'll be the next conversation I assume, and good for him.
"He deserves it. He's done a lot of things well and he goes to the right spots, worked on his shot, worked on his strength to handle pucks. Let's see him keep going."