Pastrnak dazzles in Game 2 for Bruins

BOSTON -- Once the hats had been cleared from the ice, and the raucous celebration at TD Garden had died down, the three players bent their heads toward each other on the bench. Patrice Bergeron gestured as Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak listened.
This is part of why they are who they are, why the line has become what it has become, one that has scored 20 points in two games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and transformed one of the best duos in hockey into one of the best trios.
They talk. They learn. They get better.

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Even after the Pastrnak scored the final goal of Game 2, which completed the hat trick and a six-point night, the trio was working, focused. They know there is a long way to go after a
7-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs
, and they know this is how they got here, up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series that continues at Air Canada Centre on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, NESN).
"We're communicating after almost every shift about what we're seeing and trying to change things up," Bergeron said.
It was earlier this season that Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy added Pastrnak to a line with Bergeron and Marchand - who had played together since the 2010-2011 season - and found perfection, a line that started strong and only got stronger.
Part of that has to do with the maturation of Pastrnak, as he built on a season in which he scored 70 points (34 goals, 36 assists) by scoring 80 (35 goals, 45 assists) as part of the only line in the NHL to have three 30-goal scorers.

It's a process that culminated on Saturday, as Pastrnak tied the Bruins franchise record for most points in a playoff game, tying Phil Esposito on April 2, 1969 and Rick Middleton on April 18, 1983. He also tied the NHL record for most points by a player through the first two games of a playoff series with nine (four goals, five assists), also accomplished by Esposito in 1969.
Pastrnak (21 years, 324 days) even passed Wayne Gretzky (22 years, 81 days) as the youngest player in NHL history with six points in a playoff game.
"Hell of a night," Marchand said. "He's an awesome player. He's been great for us all year. He's just progressing continually, working on his game, trying to play the right way, and I think that's what's been most impressive about the last couple games. It isn't so much that he's scoring - that's great - but it's the way he's playing. He's playing really well defensively, he's chipping pucks at the right time."

Pastrnak started by giving the Bruins the lead with a goal at 5:26 of the first period, added three primary assists, and scored twice in the third, including the final score at 18:24, the one that yielded all the hats. He controlled bouncing pucks, shifted from forehand to back, and even tucked the puck between his legs.
He dazzled.
Still, there was this, from defenseman Torey Krug, "I think the offensive stuff we've come to expect. I think everyone's excited when you see him play a complete game."

The plan had never been to keep Pastrnak with Bergeron and Marchand. The thought was it made the Bruins too top-heavy. But they never gave Cassidy a chance.
"It was hard to break them up," Cassidy said.
And it has made all the difference for Pastrnak.
In six games against the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference First Round last season, Pastrnak had four points (two goals, two assists). He had that midway through the first period in Game 2 this time around.
"He's got that confidence," Bergeron said. "He wants to be the guy. He wants to make those plays, and if we don't have the puck, he hunts it back. That's what amazes me with him. I think there's a lot of skilled players that are skilled when they have the puck; when they don't have it, they don't necessarily want it as much as this guy right here. So, I think he's taken a tremendous step this year by the way he plays away from the puck.
"We learn just as much playing with him than he's learning from us."
The tutelage of Bergeron, the preeminent two-way center in the NHL, and Marchand, no slouch himself, has been formative. The way the three talk has been significant in his development. That, though, seems to shortchange the pure talent that Pastrnak has, coupled with the drive to become a forward worthy of inclusion with Bergeron and Marchand, the way Marchand has been to become a partner worthy of Bergeron.

"Playing with Bergy and Marchy, these guys know what it takes," Pastrnak said. "To be honest, I wish every young guy in the League - obviously in the League there are a lot of great players - I wish every young guy got to play with these two players. Take the lessons, what they have for you. For me, it's just about listening to them and I learned a lot, especially this year."
It has built to the point where the line, and the player, seem nearly impossible to stop.
And on Saturday, they were. Pastrnak was. It was, as Marchand would say, a hell of a night.