Sometimes it takes a heightened challenge to summon the highest level of greatness for a superstar hockey player like David Pastrnak.
That was the case on Thursday night when Pasta racked up his first hat trick of the season in an impressive 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche, opening the scoring on his first shift of the game and then closing the Avs out with a pair of third-period goals helping lift Boston to sweet victory.
The hats were flying after the empty net score iced the third straight win for the Black and Gold.
David Pastrnak netted his 16th career regular-season hat trick. Only Phil Esposito (26) has more three-goal performances for the @NHLBruins. #NHLStats: https://t.co/blnjizKnMC pic.twitter.com/K9rbt6378W
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 19, 2024
It was the 12th different team that Pastrnak has collected a hat trick against putting him in a club with Cam Neely (13) and Phil Esposito (12) as the only Boston Bruins players to collect a dozen or more hat tricks against different NHL franchises.
But it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill three-goal performance for a prolific player that’s had more than a couple.
It felt like No. 88 had a little extra in the tank in the matchup against the Avs while lining up against fellow superstar players Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon, who also scored for Colorado in the star-studded affair. The right wing and his B’s teammates admitted that was a bit of the case postgame after scoring his 27th, 28th and 29th goals of the season while pacing for 54 goals and 119 points at the halfway mark of the season.
“I think all of the top players do, to be honest with you,” said Jake DeBrusk, when asked if he could sense a little extra from Pastrnak going against the ultra-speedy MacKinnon and ultra-skilled Makar. “It’s one of those things where you never really know with Pasta before the game.
“You know, he’s Pasta…but he was obviously ready to play and had a great game. It’s one of those things where he only needs one Grade-A look and he’s ready to put it J-bar. He’s a special talent, obviously, and we’ve all seen it. But the other things he does away from the puck have gotten way better this year and that’s the most where I’ve seen him grow into a leadership role inside the room.”
Pastrnak wasn’t the only one, obviously, as Charlie Coyle made a fantastic play stripping Makar of a puck around the front of the Colorado net that immediately went to Pastrnak in the slot area. He whirled around and buried one off the post 44 seconds into the first period to get the Black and Gold off and running in a game that they never trailed against the high-powered Avalanche.
🍝 1
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) January 19, 2024
Avs 0pic.twitter.com/Lv1Uz8qXLB
The second goal, the insurance marker for the B’s, was perhaps the most impressive as Pastrnak won a puck battle at the side wall, got the puck to DeBrusk in the middle of the ice and then cut the net where DeBrusk found him with a drop-down pass for a quick shot over the leg pad that beat Alexander Georgiev.
DeBrusk to Pastrnak on the power play.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 19, 2024
Pastrnak's second goal of the game makes it 4-2 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/OfM3vdsyUH
Makar wasn’t on the ice for Pastrnak’s power play strike, but he was on the ice for each of Pastrnak’s other two goals and finished a minus-2 for his troubles in a game where there was plenty of head-to-head between electric winger and electric defenseman. Perhaps all the compliments thrown Makar and MacKinnon’s way by others around the NHL have served as motivation to players like Pastrnak that they are well worthy of that kind of lionizing praise as well.
"When MacKinnon's line gets out there with Makar and Toews ... that's not the NHL. That's another league."
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 14, 2024
Sheldon Keefe with about as high of praise as you can give for the Avs top guns 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/IQw6m07mkT
“Those are top players. They make it a little tougher and you wouldn’t mind if you stay away from their line because they’ve been playing unbelievable,” said a humble Pastrnak after dropping three goals and taking over the game against Colorado. “It’s obviously challenging and good motivation to play against them. Even Mikko [Rantanen], they have been unbelievable together so it’s fun to play against those guys.”
The tour de force Pastrnak performance was perhaps also a reminder that he should be very much in the Hart Trophy discussion with MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Quinn Hughes, Sam Reinhart and Connor McDavid among others this season. Some might sleep on him because big numbers are expected from a game-breaking winger that topped 60 goals last season, but this season he’s been doing it with rotating centers and different forwards around him.
Coming off a season where Pastrnak finished second in Hart Trophy voting behind McDavid and has finished in the top-5 twice in the last four years, it feels like the time is now for the 27-year-old to earn that kind of hardware at the very prime of his dynamic career with the Black and Gold.
Last night Pastrnak was again Coyle and Marchand for the third straight game, combination that’s looked natural with Coyle playing a little bit of a Patrice Bergeron-type role in a recreation of the Perfection Line.
“He’s a superstar in the league and what I value most is how he competes on pucks,” said Jim Montgomery, of Pastrnak getting “up” to play against other stars from across the league. “Players like him and [Brad] Marchand do it night in and night out and it becomes infectious in the lineup. When they’re on our team tends to soar.
“I don’t know, but there seems to be a lot of 1-on-1 battles between [Pastrnak] and Makar. It seems like they both relish the moment and it’s great to watch. It’s not so much forward against forward (Pastrnak versus MacKinnon), I think that’s what I noticed.”
What Montgomery left out is that it was Pastrnak winning most of those 1-on-1 battles with Makar, and Boston’s best players flat outperforming Colorado’s best skaters on a Thursday night regular season battle in Boston.
It will simply go down as one of 82 regular season games in the books for both the Bruins and the Avalanche with many left to dream it could be a Stanley Cup Final matchup in June. But it was also a head-to-head showdown between two (or three if you count Makar in that mix as well) of the top Hart Trophy candidates in the NHL this season, and Pastrnak won that round in a clear, decisive statement as he continues to carry Boston offensively at a time when they really needed him to do that in lamp-lighting fashion.