With David Pastrnak blanked and Brad Marchand on the shelf, the Bruins were unable to sneak any pucks past Minnesota’s Filip Gustavsson on Sunday.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. — David Pastrnak was buzzing.
As he has been since the calendar switched to 2025, the Bruins winger — and the hottest scorer across the NHL — was the most noticeable player on the ice Sunday. He provided the Bruins and the Wild crowd with energy and entertainment with every shift at the Xcel Energy Center.
He led the Bruins in ice time (25:18), shots on goal (5), and gave his teammates oodles of opportunities.
However, for the first time in 18 games, Pastrnak was held off the scoresheet. As was every Black and Gold skater
in a 1-0 loss.
Pastrnak’s 17-game scoring streak set an NHL record for a Czechia-born player, eclipsing 16-gamers by Jaromir Jagr (2000-01) and Robert Lang (2003-04).
With Pastrnak (32 goals, 75 points) blanked and Brad Marchand (21 goals, 47 points) on the shelf, the Bruins were unable to sneak any pucks past Filip Gustavsson, who put on a Gold Glove performance with 28 saves.
The shutout underscored what has been a problem area for the Bruins all season: secondary scoring.
When teams are able to blanket Pastrnak, Boston has been unable to consistently generate offense and find production from others. The loss to the Wild was the sixth time the Bruins have been shut out this season, tied for third most in the NHL.
When teams have a prolific scorer such as Pastrnak, sometimes others can get caught watching and waiting for him to do his thing. The Bruins need their depth players to be more proactive.
Charlie Coyle pointed to playing with confidence as a key.
“I think it’s a mind-set thing and everyone’s got to have that belief that you can put the puck in the net, but we can’t get away from our little details and what gives us the puck and possession more and opportunities. That’s something that we have to make sure we kind of hone in on still,” said Coyle. “Especially when you don’t score in a game, it’s almost natural to get away and try to find another avenue around it. And yeah, there’s little things inside that we can figure out and maybe be better at, but we’ve got to keep our details going the right way. Dial those in. We’re going to get opportunities and we’re going to finish. But yeah, we need that secondary scoring, and we need guys to take responsibility, including myself, and contribute that way.”
Joe Sacco, whose team has played in seven straight one-goal games, said gaining inside ice on a consistent basis is a way of creating Grade-A chances.
“Whether it’s creating more traffic at the net, having more of a shot mind-set, playing off the shot more, creating some more two-on-ones. Just getting to the inside,” said the coach. “I thought against the Islanders, even though we didn’t grab a point, we had better looks. I thought Minnesota did a good job trying to keep us to the outside. We have to find a way to get into the interior more.”
Getting to that hard ice in and around the slot will be critical down the stretch as the Bruins play playoff-like hockey to stay in the hunt for an invite to the postseason.
