Kalman: Quest For Postseason Driving Bruins' Pastrnak During Busy Offseason
By Matt Kalman
MIDDLETON (CBS) -- It seems like Bruins forward David Pastrnak is always a man on the move.
The past couple of seasons, his first two in the NHL, featured him moving around from Boston to Providence and to the World Junior Championship. This summer he's bounced from the World Championships to his native Czech Republic to China for a promotional tour with a Bruins caravan and back to Boston for workouts with the Bruins training staff, a practice on the pitch with AS Roma and a round of golf at Shawn Thornton's Putts and Punches tournament at Ferncroft Country Club this week.
Pastrnak will be on the move again in the a few weeks, when he'll join up with his teammates from the Czech Republic to get ready for the World Cup of Hockey.
"I always try to stay active in the summer, do all different stuff, try something new," Pastrnak said. "I used to play soccer all the time back home, so it was kind of a nice thing [to practice with AS Roma]. It's always nice to put some new stuff into the summer than just work out every day. It's much better to go have some fun after a workout."
For the Bruins' sake, all this activity will hopefully contribute to the 20-year-old having a breakout year in 2016-17. With a forward corps that has flipped Loui Eriksson for David Backes and not done anything else other than slightly upgrade the fourth line, the Bruins need one or two younger players to really play a major role. That's where Pastrnak should come in.
The 6-foot tall, 181-pound Pastrnak is visibly more cut now than he's ever been, so his ability to battle in the corners should be better. Always fearless in the open ice, Pastrnak should be better able to take a licking and keep on ticking.
The Bruins asked Pastrnak to spend more time in the Boston area this summer and he obliged. He went home for a brief time but now he's in the Bay State working out under the watchful eyes of team staff. That's the type of willingness to get better that many players talk about but few players act on. Pastrnak's willingness to do as he's told and also learn from everyone around him has been a key to his quick development and could pay off with him making the Bruins look even smarter for drafting him 25th in 2014.
Depending on how the Bruins lineup shakes out, Pastrnak could be in the enviable position of being the third man on the Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand line or Pastrnak could be responsible for making David Krejci's line a formidable No. 2 again. That'll mean scoring at an even better clip than the 25 goals he has scored in his first 97 games.
But Pastrnak's not setting any individual goals.
"I'm just trying to think about making the playoffs and getting there for the chance to win a Stanley Cup. Because I missed it twice by a couple points, so I don't want that to happen again," he said. "Obviously I want to get better every day, but I'm not [putting] any pressure or goals or something [on myself]. Just go and play and for the team."
When the Bruins drafted Pastrnak, they were a regular fixture in the postseason. Now two years of futility have Pastrnak wondering what it's like to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Bruins' failures have taught Pastrnak a lesson and he hopes what he's learned will pay off in actual playoff participation soon.
"Every single game, every single point is important now," he said. "Those last two years was obviously an experience that you could see every single point that you lose could cost you the playoffs."
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
