With David Pastrnak out, where do the Bruins go from here?

Bruce Cassidy might have summed it up best when asked of his immediate reaction to news of David Pastrnak’s injury.

"It was disappointment,” Cassidy said Tuesday at Warrior Ice Arena. “He's one of our better players. I'm sure David feels terrible about it, at least that's what I've been told through Donny (Sweeney), that he doesn't feel good about it.”

For a Bruins club that finally seemed to get over the hump after a myriad of injuries back in November depleted the lineup, Tuesday’s news was a punch to the gut — a development made even more ill-fated given the fact that Pastrnak’s injury wasn’t due to an on-ice incident.  

One of just two players to play in all 56 games this season (the other being David Krejci) - Pastrnak underwent a procedure for a torn tendon in his left thumb after falling following a sponsorship dinner Sunday night. He is expected to be re-evaluated in two weeks, while Sweeney noted that the team fully expects the 22-year-old winger to return at some point later this season.

Obviously, there’s no immediate solution to fill the void left by Pastrnak — who leads the Bruins with 31 goals and 66 points this season.

Even with Boston’s season-long issues with scoring, especially during 5v5 play, Pastrnak has been a bright spot in the offensive zone — tying for first in the league with 15 power-play tallies, while also being out on the ice for over 44 percent of Boston’s 5v5 goals this season. Yikes.

There’s plenty to digest in wake of Pastrnak’s injury — and a ton of fires that both Cassidy and Sweeney will need to put out as the Bruins prep for the stretch run of the 2018-19 campaign. Boston might be just two points out of second place in the Eastern Conference, but the club can’t simply tread water over the next couple of weeks, given the fact that just five points separate the Bruins from being out out of a playoff spot.

"After the disappointment moves along, it's challenge now,” Cassidy said. “We're taking our leading scorer out of the lineup and we're already struggling to generate enough offense we feel, as it is. Now you're going to the drawing board and — okay, what's the best way to go about this in terms of replacing his production?”

Here’s a look at a few areas that Cassidy and his staff will need to take a long look at while Pastrnak is on the mend.



Power play

The Bruins’ formula when it comes to accruing points hasn’t changed all that much this season — stingy defense, good goaltending and a dynamic power play.

For as much as Boston has labored during 5v5 play, rolling out a unit on the man advantage with contributors like Patrice Bergeron, Pastrnak, Torey Krug and Brad Marchand has given the Bruins a safety net when the rest of the team’s offense has bottomed out.

Boston’s power play currently ranks third in the league with a success rate of 26.4 percent — with Pastrnak playing a key role in that group’s potent play in the offensive zone. His patented one-time blast from the left circle has allowed Pastrnak to light the lamp early and often on the man advantage, but the winger is also no slouch when it comes to operating from the half wall and finding seams — as he ranks second in the league with 29 total points on the power play.

With Pastrnak out of commission, Cassidy plans on promoting Krejci up to the top unit, given the veteran center’s ability to serve as a distributor up at the point alongside Krug.

“Krejci will go into Pasta’s spot. It's the easiest and I think the best fit for the first unit. Being a right stick, a guy that's played that side, comfortable with entries.”

Krejci won’t replicate Pastrnak’s production on that top unit, but with Bergeron still operating down at the bumper and Krug quarterbacking the operation, Boston should still be able to generate its fair share of looks during Pastrnak’s absence.

What might cause headaches for Cassidy lies in the makeup of Boston’s second power-play group, especially with one of the few productive contributors on that squad in Krejci now promoted.

With Matt Grzelcyk still out due to a lower-body injury, look for Charlie McAvoy to lead the second unit from the blue line and handle entries, while David Backes handles bumper responsibilities. Players like Danton Heinen, Peter Cehlarik and John Moore will also likely earn reps. Of course, the main way to negate an ineffective second unit is to just roll out the first group during most penalties — a move that Cassidy  has carried out for most of the year.

“The other unit becomes a little more of a work in progress now, who's on the half-wall, what plays we want to run," Cassidy said. "That's where the challenge will be a little more. I think it was pretty easy, with the second group, when we had David in charge of all the entries, basically, built around him. Because he's very good at it.

“Now we've gotta find another way to get in the zone. Backes can take the draws, so we're covered there. He did a very good job when Bergy was out with the first group. We're going to try to build something on that one. We've got a lot of left sticks, so we started with that this morning. I suspect the first group, as in the past, will get the majority of the time anyway. It's not something that's pressing right now, it's about just building some chemistry among that group and hopefully they're able to supplement the first group."

5v5 scoring

Already an Achilles’ heel on this club, look for Boston to labor more than ever now that Pastrnak will be out of the lineup.

In terms of in-house options, Boston won’t roll out anyone that can match what Pastrnak provides this club, but the Bruins’ scoring drought could be alleviated a bit by additional contributions from the team’s younger crop of skaters.

Based on Tuesday’s rushes, Boston’s re-shuffled top line of Bergeron, Marchand and Heinen will remain intact, while Krejci will center a line with Jake DeBrusk and Peter Cehlarik.

So far, the Marchand-Bergeron-Heinen line has fared pretty well — with the trio outscoring the competition, 5-0, in a little more than 44 minutes of 5v5 play. It’s a small sample size, but with a goals for per 60 minutes rate of 6.77, that combination appears to have something brewing. Heinen has been a solid fit given his two-way play, but the winger is also starting to contribute in the O-zone with two goals and three points in his last three games.

“Danton is a good example of going in to play with two players and responding in that regard," Sweeney said. “So hopefully we’ll continue to see a bump there. Some players will get an opportunity — that’s a hell of a lot power-play time that will be doled out as Butch sees fit.”

One player that needs to cash in with the extra minutes set to fall his way is DeBrusk — who has not tallied a goal since Jan. 8 and has only notched five points since the start of the new year.

While the Cehlarik-Krejci-DeBrusk line has done well in terms of possessing the puck with a 58.99 Corsi For Percentage in 76 minutes of 5v5 TOI, the trio only has three goals to show for it — good for a GF/60 rate of 2.36. Not bad, but more is going to be required of that line to shoulder some of the scoring burden over the next couple of weeks.

For the time being, at least, stingy defense and the play of both Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak will continue to be crucial, with the margin of error slimmer than ever before.

“We’ll look at different people there that have had some level of success, see if they can fill some of the void,”Cassidy said. “That’s what’s in front of us. We’ve relied on team defense, special teams, goaltending, more of the defensive side of it for the most part this year to get through. … I think this team is used to playing tight games where the scoring hasn’t been there and we’ve still managed to win. So that’s going to be the formula going forward. Hopefully, like I said, it frees up a few other guys — what’s Pasta play, 19 minutes a night? Someone is going to get those extra minutes and hopefully someone is up for a challenge.”

Another thing to keep tabs on — Boston will likely need to call up a skater from Providence following tonight’s matchup against the Blackhawks, especially with the club set to embark on a 10-day road trip out to the West Coast.

Ideally, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Anders Bjork to get another crack up at the NHL level, but the promising forward is set to miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury. If Boston is looking to recoup some scoring, Ryan Donato is another option after tallying 12 points in 15 games played down in Providence.

“We’ll have to carry an extra forward anyway. … It could be anyone down there,” Cassidy said. “Usually it’s the most deserving guy, but in this case, we make look at being a little more lineup specific."

On the trade market

Don Sweeney has already been busy looking for scoring help for his club ahead of the Feb. 25 trade deadline, but the situation is now reaching a critical stage — especially now with Pastrnak’s injury.

But Sweeney was frank when asked if losing Pastrnak will change his overall approach to how he handles the coming weeks — especially with wingers such as Artemi Panarin, Wayne Simmonds, Micheal Ferland and others reportedly available for the right price.

“Nope. It doesn’t change my approach at all,” Sweeney said. “I’ve been having calls for a month now at least, if not longer, in terms of throughout the year. Specifically, in the last month, trying to identify teams and you can imagine the jockeying going on everywhere and all of the teams that are in — some teams don’t know, and they’ll take you right to the deadline, so that may happen. We’ve been looking to do something, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.”

Sweeney didn’t want to put all of his chips out on the table, but it seems inevitable that the Bruins will make some sort of maneuver ahead of the deadline in order to bring in some scoring help, whether it be on the wing or injecting some secondary scoring further down the lineup by bringing aboard a third-line center.

Still, despite Sweeney’s hesitancy to part ways with prospects and a first-round pick, you’d have to think that other clubs are only going to raise their asking price in any potential deal going forward, given how desperate Boston is when it comes to recouping some offense for the final two months of the regular season.

“We were already looking and making calls to see whether or not we could add to the group in the right situation," Sweeney said. "I can look at it two ways, we’re going to get a hell of a player back at some point in time. I think we’ve done a really good job — Bergy's missed 20 games, Z has missed 20 games, Charlie has missed close to 30 games. Our guys have stepped up.

“ It puts pressure on us, there’s no question, an area where we’ve struggled to be consistently one of the better 5v5 goals scoring teams, that hasn’t resulted this year. We’re going to have to continue to play really tight defensively, which we’ve done, and then our goaltending is going to have to continue to be good.”