Boston Bruins
After 606 min 27 s of 5-on-5 ice time recording during the 2022-23 series, it made an utter sense for the Boston Bruins fans to expect Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak to be inseparable on one of Boston’s top-six lines in 2023-24 . One can just imagine the lineup shuffle proposal to the Bruins fans in early August 2023—after Patrice Bergeron’s retirement, Tyler Bertuzzi signing, and a Taylor Hall trade— where ‘checks notes’ Danton Heinen was the missing link on that top-six pack ? Well, that announcement could elicit plenty of laughs but also rise so much disappointment for a fandom tired of a frustrating performance during the following series after Boston’s historic season.
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But if the attempt to revive an old friend in Heinen for a part He’s never been cast into was going to be the play for the Bruins, one would’ve been more inclined this fall to believe; 2023-24 Bruins were possible more gearing toward, say, Macklin Celebrini in the upcoming 2024 NHL Draft — rather than the peak perch of the NHL standings. No one’s laughing now, of course, at the thought of Heinen flanking Pastrnak and Zacha. Not the half-dozen or so stout D corps whose scrap has been shredded by that line over the last month.
Given all the shuffling that Jim Montgomery has done this season in his completely reworked Bruins lineup, it appears that the Boston bench boss can scratch Heinen off his list of guys who have had limited looks along two established playmakers this season. Be it simply Heinen’s all-around skillset, his switching of a few more shots-first methodology, or the added lift that comes with playing next to a Hart Trophy contender in Pastrnak, it is difficult to contest with the statistics when this band hops over the boards. The Bruins have outscored rivals 14-4 in the 140:31 of 5-on-5 reps that the Heinen-Zacha-Pastrnak line has punched in thus far.
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Much of the attention in Thursday night’s 4-1 Bruins win over the Hurricanes in Raleigh will go to Brad Marchand who scored his 400th career goal.
The Heinen-Zacha-Pastrnak trio scored Boston’s lone goals against Toronto in a hearty sending-off to the Hub-related portion of their marathon six-game road trip. Leaf goaltender Frederik Andersen has been amongst his league leaders (top 10 as of April 3) for standing up his man post-to-post with no room. “It got to me near the boards, and since there wasn’t anything open there I simply came towards net with the puck… I tried to make a quick move to the forehand and put the puck over to (Frederik) Andersen’s far side, which turned out just fine ” Pastrnak told reporters after his 47th goal.
Pastrnak is no slouch at generating offense, especially at his age in the National Hockey League. Nevertheless, both Heinen (one goal, one assist vs. Carolina) and Zacha (two assists) were certainly pivotal to Boston’s remade top group on line one.
Heinen already ranks among this season’s best bargain basement finds scoring 16 goals and 34 points in 69 games while carrying just a $775,000 cap hit. Over his last 21 contests, Heinen has six goals and 15 points.
‘I think I’ve learned that those guys are so good with the puck, so I try to move quickly. Get it into their hands and then hop to hit the net. We’re looking to build together and I listen well to what they say. They are two high-end guys what they want because I want something, too. “It’s getting to be that part of my job in that line (with Zacha and Pastrnak) is playing solid defense and setting them up to do their thing. This is; a definite something I talked about and worked on.”
It’s just another sign that life’s getting better for Pavel Zacha during the final weeks of the 2023-24 season. Zacha has 12 assists and seven goals in his last 15 games, which gives him a total of 19 points on the session — just two away from tying his career-record high set last spring (57).
The same can be said of the Bruins’ performance down the stretch since this trio started seeing regular ice time.
“Two good teams and tonight in particular. We were up by a mile after the first period. In both cases we played our game, although Boston needed a goal late to hold onto their win Wednesday, “Pastrnak said.
