
BOSTON -- Once you’ve been through a 17-game goal-scoring drought, a 10-game stretch probably isn’t going to faze you all that much.
That was the approach David Pastrnak was taking while going through a still-productive 10-game span without a goal that he finally snapped on Saturday night when he hammered home a one-timer off a pass from Patrice Bergeron during a 7-1 butt-kicking of the Carolina Hurricanes at TD Garden. It was part of a one-goal, three-point performance for Pastrnak in 13 minutes of ice time where the Perfection Line amassed 5 goals, 12 points and a plus-11 rating during a totally dominant game.
It was truly a men-against-boys matchup when Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak were on the ice, with that trio getting chance after chance. The totatled 11 shots on net and a whopping 19 shot attempts on a night when Bruce Cassidy was able to reduce their ice time in a blowout.
“Good for that line. I told them in the room, that they’re probably got tired of reading about [Sean] Kuraly and [Riley] Nash supplying all of the offense,” cracked Cassidy. “So they said to heck with that.”
Pastrnak said he truly wasn’t dwelling on the dry spell, and it showed when he confidently smashed home the shot from his customary spot in the left face-off circle. He was waiting for his chance and didn’t miss an inch when the puck finally arrived.
“Obviously it’s nice,” said Pastrnak, who finished with five shot attempts in a busy night despite the very average amount of ice time. “It was a good PP [power play] and good battles there and a nice puck by Bergy [Patrice Bergeron], so it felt nice to get it in. Like I said, overall we had a good game. I went though [a 17-game drought] last year so I didn’t . . . we were playing really well this year so it was way easier for me when we’re playing good.
“Just keep it simple and don’t think about it too much. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it until you guys told me. I had no idea. Obviously it’s been a while, but those things happen and it’s normal. It was a lot of help that we were playing really good.”
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Overall in his last 11 games when Pastrnak was "slumping", he's had a goal, 10 points and was a plus-4, numbers pretty much anyone around the NHL would kill for.
Even with the "slump" Pastrnak is on a pace for 33 goals and a career-high 79 points this season, and his pretty much flawless line group has powered the offense in the last two games.