It would have been easy for Bruce Cassidy to take the Bruins' young D corps to task following Thursday's disheartening 4-1 loss to the Penguins — a result that was even uglier than what one could infer from glancing at the TD Garden scoreboard.
On a night in which the Bruins were booed off their own ice from a crowd of woefully unimpressed fans, Cassidy could have addressed the most glaring gaffes found on a game film that might — for the team's own sanity — be better placed on an ash heap than incorporated into pre-practice video sessions.
For the second night in a row, Boston's D corps struggled, especially youngsters such as Jeremy Lauzon, who — after setting up a pair of Devils goals on Tuesday off of self-inflicted miscues — was promptly roasted by fellow stay-at-home blueliner Mike Matheson on a sequence that looked like something out of an early 70s Bruins game or late 80s Oilers matchups.
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But for Cassidy, those gaffes, while frustrating, are some of the lumps that teams must take when younger players are incorporated into the lineup. It may not be pretty, especially in the midst of Boston's extended malaise, but they are to be expected, given the personnel out on the ice right now for a young — and severely banged-up — roster.
What isn't expected, however, are those mistakes and lapses in execution stemming from some of the key cogs in the B's locker room. And yet, such was the case on Thursday night, especially with Boston's traditional offensive conduit in David Pastrnak.
"I'm not frustrated with those guys, I'm disappointed — that they don't recognize the value of the puck and where we are in the game and they haven't stepped up a little more," Cassidy said of his top players. "I get frustrated with the younger guys that make the same mistakes or can't get their shots through from the point. ... That's just a learning curve for some of them. And some of them will learn it and be better off for it.
"Every young guy that comes in this league has to figure it out, find a way — we're here to help them and eventually you make a decision with them. There's no frustration with the older guys. They know what's at stake. They've been to Stanley Cup Finals so they know the way the games played. They just need to respect it and play that way. My job is to get that message through and get them to understand. Their job is to understand that they are leaders this Hockey Club, and they should know better."
Cassidy didn't name names when it came to calling out his top players, but it was pretty clear when he said "value of the puck" was lost for Boston's big guns. Trailing, 2-1, past the midway point of the third period after Brad Marchand gave his team new life with a quick shot past Casey DeSmith, Boston smelled blood in the water.
But less than two minutes after Marchand's tally, an attempted breakout led to disaster. After receiving the puck from Patrice Bergeron, Pastrnak crossed over the B's blue line and into neutral ice, only to promptly relinquish the biscuit off of a careless turnover. Before both Pastrnak or the Bruins knew what hit them, Boston found itself on the wrong side of a 2-on-1 counter rush, with Jason Zucker firing one home against Dan Vladar to make it a 3-1 game and snuff out any chances of a late-game Boston rally.
It was a fumble that sealed Boston's fate against a red-hot Penguins club, but Thursday's back-breaking giveaway has been just one of many concerning trends with Pastrnak's game over the last couple of weeks.
Boston needs more from Pastrnak when it comes to handling the puck, but a Selke Trophy will never likely be in the cards for the 24-year-old winger down the road. He can be prone to turnovers, nor is he the most physical player along the boards. But what Pastrnak lacks in terms of a complete 200-foot profile, he often more than offsets with his potent scoring prowess.
But even that part of Pastrnak's game has dried up at the worst possible time, with the reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner limited to just one point (an assist) in his last five games. Over a larger sample size, even though the points have regularly been there on the power play, the same can't be said for an obvious area of need in even-strength action — with Pastrnak only lighting the lamp once in 5v5 play over the last 13 games.
13 (!) games.
That might be expected for even a hot-and-cold, second-line winger, but not for a player of Pastrnak's caliber, especially given how vital his contributions are to keeping Boston's offense afloat.
For Cassidy, a lot of Pastrnak's dormant play as of late can be drawn to his recent M.O. in the offensive zone — with far too much puck play and long-range attempts leading to failed possessions and low-danger shots that teams are anticipating now. That patented one-timer has served Pastrnak well for years now, but it's not Rivera's cut fastball — teams know it's coming, and they're building a defensive game plan around negating it.
"He has to find his way," Cassidy said of Pastrnak earlier this week. "I mean, he plays 20 minutes a night. ... I just don't think he's in the interior nearly as much as he needs to be. A lot of kind of poke-and-go stuff, a lot of outside, looking for the one-on-one moves — certainly has them, but defenders know that he's going to try that, so they're more aware, so he just has to get a little dirtier. ... I think they got to get back to scoring some greasy goals. They typically will do that, eventually find their way."
This year, Pastrnak is shooting further and further away from the net than ever before — with his shots coming from an average distance of 37.6 feet. In 2019-20, when Pastrnak buried 48 goals in 70 games, his shots came from an average distance of 32.1 feet — those totals buoyed by plenty of dangles down low and pucks tucked home on rebound attempts.
This recent trend has been concerning for Pastrnak in more ways than one — but the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor that another two or three-goal outburst is just a fortuitous bounce or two away. At least, that should be the thinking for a player that has had a knack for making something out of nothing in the offensive zone for years now.
"I think he's just such a dangerous player," Marchand said of Pastrnak. "When he's attacking the net, from all angles, when he's skating the way he can? He's dangerous. They have to respect that. They back off a little more when he just drives, puts his head down and takes it to the net and he draws a lot of penalties and creates a lot of loose pucks for other guys coming in and his abilities take over. So t's tough. We all get there. When things aren't going your way, it's frustrating. Especially where he puts a lot of pressure on himself. He wants to be the best goal scorer in the league and he is. It's great that he has those expectations and that's why he's our best player."
On most nights for the last few years, Pastrnak has indeed lived up to the billing as one of Boston's best players — with his scoring talents masking what has been a largely impotent offense, season after season.
Boston sure could use that heavy lifting once again, and not a moment too soon.
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