David Pastrnak is on fire. The Boston Bruins are not. Their superstar winger has points in 12 consecutive games, 25 total in that span. Typically, when No. 88 has been hot, the Bruins have been able to string together wins. That has not been the case this time around. The Bruins are just 7-5-0 during Pastrnak’s streak, not nearly good enough for a team that is on the bubble in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Simply put, Pastrnak is doing his job, but his teammates are not. Forget making a splash in the postseason, if the Bruins are going to make the playoffs at all, the rest of the team is going to need to step up.
Lack of Help for Pastrnak
Pastrnak is the highest-paid player on the Bruins for a reason, and that reason is to score goals. He has done just that so far in 2025, leading the league in goals scored during the new year and setting a 72-goal pace during that stretch. Since his point streak started on Jan. 11, he has factored in on 25 Boston goals; the team has scored just 18 outside of those during that stretch. While disappointing, offensive struggles are nothing new to this group. Over the course of the season, they have landed themselves in the bottom quarter in goals per game, and they have the third-worst power play in the league as of Friday night.
Some of the lack of production that has plagued the Bruins offensively all season can be attributed to the departure of longtime Bruins’ winger Jake DeBrusk, who headed west to Vancouver during the offseason. DeBrusk currently sits with 33 points on a struggling Canucks team, a figure that would be good for third on the Bruins.
New faces in Boston haven’t exactly helped their cause either. The Bruins took a bet on Elias Lindholm, signing him to a long-term deal and hoping that he would emerge as a true number-one center. That signing has not panned out: while Lindholm has been a solid two-way player for the Bruins, he has not been able to produce to a level that lives up to his salary, a concern for the Bruins going forward. Even the always-steady Brad Marchand is having a down year, on pace for the fewest points per game he has had in a decade.
Not Dead Yet
Pastrnak has willed the Bruins to some key victories and may have even earned his way into the Hart conversation over the past month. It is clear, however, that this team would not be in the playoff conversation with the way they have played if it was not for their leading goalscorer. Their offensive struggles have been just the tip of the iceberg: they have been plagued by penalties and a subpar penalty kill, have committed far too many errors at five-on-five defensively, and their goaltending has been lukewarm, a far cry from where they were even a year ago.
After all that, however, they are still very much alive in the Eastern Conference. Their recipe to make the playoffs begins with Pastrnak staying hot. It requires that he gets help too, however. Other members of their forward group like Marchand, Lindholm, Morgan Geekie (who has been a pleasant surprise for the Bruins this season), Justin Brazeau, and Pavel Zacha all need to elevate their play. In that same vein, they will need to turn around their power play and find some momentum there, perhaps by moving Mason Lohrei to the top unit in place of Charlie McAvoy. Finally, they will need Jeremy Swayman to elevate his play down the stretch as he did a season ago. It seems like a lot to ask, but the Bruins are very much alive thanks to the play of No. 88.
