Bruins’ David Pastrnak hurting his team more than helping it

Later in the second, Pastrnak was pursuing a puck in the offensive zone when he wiped out Matt Dumba. It ended one of the Bruins’ better down-low flurries.

It’s bad enough when Pastrnak, the Bruins’ best player, takes himself off the ice. It’s even worse when the opponents score on the power play.

“There’s no question,” Pastrnak, following the 5-2 loss, answered when asked if he took too many penalties. “I think I took two penalties. I honestly can’t remember taking this many penalties in my career as it is this season. That first penalty, you can leave it. Just tried to take him down. But the second one, honestly, is unfortunate. I think I was trying to go to the puck, speared the guy. Definitely bad on my part. Can’t put the team in a short-handed situation twice in one game. I definitely took too many penalties today.”

Pastrnak has seven minor penalties in eight games. His 0.86 minors-per-game rate is well above last season (0.20). He was called for 16 minors in 82 games in 2023-24.

It would have been one thing if the Bruins were playing well, confidently and with enough purpose. In previous years, the penalty kill has emerged when the Bruins take unnecessary infractions.

But the Bruins are disengaged. It is showing in their play.

“Our attitudes need to go in a better, healthier direction,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “As in trying to control what you control, which is trying to excel at your role. Our attitudes are not in the moment. They’re on results. And when your attitude is on results, you tend to take too many penalties. Because you get frustrated quickly. And you tend to turn over the puck a lot because you don’t want to work for the offense. You want results right away. And that attitude of not willing to work for what we want to get and get to our team game is causing some struggles right now.”

As a result, the penalty kill broke both times Pastrnak was in the box. On the first occasion, the Stars made Hampus Lindholm and Johnny Beecher pay for two failed clears. Jamie Benn executed a pass out to Jason Robertson in the bumper. Jeremy Swayman had no chance on Robertson’s quick strike.

Prior to the second power-play goal, Mason Marchment caught all four penalty killers leaning toward the left side of the ice. Marchment sent a slot-line pass to Tyler Seguin, who was all alone on the opposite side. The ex-Bruin had all day to advance the puck inside the right faceoff dot and fire the puck past Swayman.

Pastrnak wasn’t the only player to visit the box in the second. Parker Wotherspoon went off for interference after missing a clearing attempt. On the PK, Charlie McAvoy tried to kill a play high in the Boston zone. But before McAvoy could close, Marchment set up Matt Duchene for a two-on-one rush with Logan Stankoven against Lindholm. Stankoven received Marchment’s pass and shoveled the puck past Swayman.

“You can’t take that many penalties in the second,” Montgomery said. “It’s the hardest period to get changes on the penalty kill. So guys end up out there tired. When guys are tired, they’re going to make mistakes and they’re not going to execute. That happened on two of those goals.”

Pastrnak scored one of the Bruins’ two goals. But it was during four-on-four play. He did not generate anything at five-on-five while playing with Brad Marchand and Elias Lindholm on the No. 1 line. Pastrnak did nothing in a game-high 4:25 of power-play time.

Pastrnak, more than any of his teammates, has the offensive talent to change outcomes. But he has just one five-on-five goal. In a team-high 37:43 of PP time, Pastrnak has scored just twice.

Pastrnak cannot score, of course, when he is whistled off the ice. The Bruins are paying Pastrnak $11.25 million annually to score goals and chase wins. Not sit in the penalty box.