How street hockey helped David Pastrnak hone his one-timer

David Pastrnak has street hockey to thank for his lethal one-timer.

The Bruins forward has a passion for the orange Mylec ball and, every summer, he replaces his skates with sneakers and plays street hockey any chance he gets. In fact, he played five years of professional street hockey from ages 10 to 15.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Pastrnak is a former pro street hockey player from the Czech Republic and was even paid a little bit of money to play games on the weekends.

Internationally, the game is known as ball hockey and it’s popular in the Czech Republic with leagues all over the country. He’s also won two national ball hockey championships and two silver medals from the Ball Hockey World Championship. He was invited to take part again in that tournament in his home country last summer but didn’t play. These days he’s all about pickup games with his friends and will occasionally ask to play with a bunch of kids if he finds a game in the streets of Boston.

“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s my life. I love it.”



On the ice, Pastrnak has scored many of his 91 career NHL goals on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle. It’s a skill he has honed during his pro career. He has the ability to unleash from that spot, but every once in a while, he’ll completely fan on an attempt. There’s no in between.

“Last year, I had a couple of good one-timers, so I started to work on it and I’m trying to get better since last year,” said Pastrnak, who believes he developed the talent during his younger street hockey days.

“The wrist shot is pretty hard to shoot because of the (friction with the) ground, so most of your shots are one-timers or slap shots in that sport,” he said. “That’s where I developed my one-timer, to be honest. It’s the same technique, similar sport but you’re just running. The wrist shots are harder on the ground, so all of my goals were slap shots or one-timers.”


Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy has witnessed Pastrnak's development into an elite shooter firsthand, starting in Providence.

"It's not something he had as an 18-year-old in Providence on a regular basis," Cassidy told BostonSportsJournal.com. "A lot of his goals were in tight, like (Anders) Bjork, with speed, creativity, winning pucks and deking around the net. So, it'll be interesting to see if Bjork develops like Pasta did."

It helps that Pastrnak has grown into a man and has a stronger frame now than he did when he first turned pro. Cassidy described Pastrnak's ability to shoot the one-timer as a "home run hitter."

"Now it's been better lately too," admitted Cassidy. "He was mis-hitting a few of them and some of that's confidence and now he seems to have his confidence back and he's getting a little more on it."

The coach also isn't surprised that street hockey has helped. Cassidy is a big fan of street hockey and played ball hockey competitively as a young player.

"I could shoot the puck," admitted Cassidy. "I developed my shot and my hand-eye coordination playing street hockey."

Unlike other masters of the one-timer like Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, Pastrnak's like a wind-up toy: he's better when he's moving around on the ice rather than standing still while setting up for the shot. It can be a challenge at times for linemates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to feed the perfect one-timer pass because Pastrnak is always moving.

"It's a good thing because he's not just a one-time threat," Bergeron told BSJ. "He can make plays and can see guys open, so (opponents) have that in the back of their heads and that's why they don't always block his shot because they're always worried about him passing the puck.

"When he hits it, it's really going. Not too many people can get in front of it because it's coming up so hot and so fast and it's tough to block."

Count Pastrnak as someone who believes kids don’t play enough street hockey these days. He's only 21 but understands how valuable it was for him to develop certain skills off the ice while just playing for the fun of it.

"The way he releases it he can get it off from anywhere and it doesn't matter how hard the puck is coming at him, he's still able to get it off," Marchand said. "It's a dangerous shot. I'm not great at them and I don't know how guys do it. I can't do it from up high. I wish I would've played more street hockey."