David Pastrnak watched, somewhat impatiently, as the Boston Bruins put up a respectable 3-2-0 record in the five games that he missed due to injury and scored a solid 17 goals during that span without their most explosive offense-maker.
So it’s perhaps no surprise he is making up for lost time since returning to the lineup over the last two games. Pastrnak has seven points in two games since his return and paced the B’s offense with two goals and four points in Boston’s impressive 6-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the Canada Life Centre.
Despite missing five games due to injury, Pastrnak still leads the team with 36 points in 27 games, which includes a 23-assist mark that has him just outside the top-10 in the NHL in that category.
The difference in Thursday night’s road win, as opposed to the road opener in St. Louis, was that Charlie McAvoy also returned to the Bruins lineup after missing 11 games with facial injuries suffered after taking a slapshot to the face, and that gives the Black and Gold close to a full-powered lineup once again.
Sure, they lost Jonathan Aspirot (upper body) and Viktor Arvidsson (lower body) to injuries as they continue to endure through their veritable gauntlet of an NHL schedule, but there was no mistaking that the B’s machine has kept on rolling no matter who is in the lineup.
It certainly doesn’t hurt when Pastrnak authors a four-point performance, and McAvoy finished a plus-4 in 24 plus minutes while allowing the Bruins a lot of leeway with both McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm back at the top of the blue line group, stabilizing everything. Pastrnak was so good that Sturm began double-shifting him in the third period with Arvidsson out of the lineup, and the Bruins (and Pastrnak) got better as things were going along while holding Winnipeg to just five shots on net in the final 20 minutes.
“They’re our best players for a reason,” said Bruins coach Marco Sturm to NESN following the game. “It’s nice to have [Pastrnak] back and see him 100 percent…And Chucky, I don’t know. I have no words for him. He’s been outstanding. We missed him a lot, and to come back today the way he did, it was just amazing. [He’s] just a great human being, great hockey player. We missed him, and it’s nice to see him back with a smile.”
The victory allowed the Bruins to keep pace with the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place (38 points) in the Atlantic Division and has them just a weekend game against Minnesota away from finishing with a perfect 3-for-3 on the road swing through some of the coldest spots on the NHL circuit.
“Obviously, I came [back] into the [lineup with the team] winning and the boys were playing unbelievable hockey before I came back, so I was just trying to jump in and join,” said Pastrnak to NESN. “It’s always easier when the team is winning and I think that’s what is happening.
“It’s tough to see guys go down with injury but at the same time we have to have their back. Today it was my turn to have more ice time. Obviously I enjoyed it and it helped me, and I felt great. So it was a great way to start both games on the road and we have one more game to go. We have had so much adversity already this season and everybody has stepped, so that’s the fun part about [this team]. When you are winning it is much easier to keep things going.”
Pastrnak has been doing it in a different way, fitting into a spot where the team needed him when he returned to things while skating with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov, and leading to a pair of goals for Minten in Tuesday’s win over St. Louis prior to Thursday’s four-point explosion against the Jets.
It led Marco Sturm to jokingly call Pastrnak a “third liner” while acknowledging his move up to fourth place all-time on the Bruins goal-scoring list after notching his 403rd career goal in the first period.
McAvoy return game assist ✅
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 12, 2025
Pastrnak's 403rd career goal to take sole possession of 4th all time in goals by a Bruin ✅ pic.twitter.com/YJSobSpXYP
But the Black and Gold are no joke offensively as so many expected them to be this season, and instead it is opponents that are turning into the punchline. After dropping six goals on the Jets, the B’s are ninth in the NHL averaging 3.28 goals per game and getting offense from every corner of the lineup including goals from Casey Mittelstadt, Sean Kuraly, Hampus Lindholm and Elias Lindholm on Thursday night.
“The guys have been playing great hockey, so it’s a joy to play with this group,” said McAvoy. “It’s always tough to sit out especially when they’ve been looking like they’ve been having a lot of fun and playing really good.
“We had a great game tonight. That’s a big road win. The way we played in the third period just finishing things out, that’s a really good win for the group. This team is really special and it’s a lot of fun to come to the rink, and I just wanted to jump right back in. When the doctor says it’s safe, you just want to come back in. The best way to get [everything] back is to just get out there and play. I’m glad I was able to do that tonight.”
The Bruins continue to shuffle players in and out of the lineup due to injuries and that will be no different in Sunday’s road finale in Minnesota, but getting their two biggest weapons back takes some of the sting out of the missing bodies from another solid road victory.