BOSTON — From the moment David Pastrnak poked the puck off Morgan Rielly’s stick, everyone in the TD Garden knew it would be a goal. Even after Brad Marchand failed to score on his initial breakaway attempt, all it took was a simple Patrice Bergeron pass in the corner to leave Pastrnak wide open for another chance.

This one ended up in the top left corner of the net.

In a matter of nine seconds, the Boston Bruins’ top line produced two incredible scoring chances. Considering the way they have finished off their opportunities so far this postseason, one of them was bound to go in.

Pastrnak led the charge Saturday in a 7-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, finishing with three goals and three assists as Boston grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series. His linemates, Bergeron and Marchand, each had four assists. It was the first time all season everyone on that line had four points in the same game.

“Terrific and terrific,” Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy said about his top line’s performance. “I don’t think I can say anymore. … Really hard to play against, and they play a 200-foot game. You can talk about (Bergeron) and (Marchand) on the penalty kill, while you’re at it.”

It’s just two games into the postseason, but the Bruins’ top line ranks 1-2-3 atop the NHL’s postseason scoring leaderboard. Pastrnak already has nine points, and Marchand has six. Bergeron and Bruins defenseman Torey Krug are tied with five points.

Advertisement

Often in the postseason, it’s harder for top lines to produce at the rate they hope to, as teams key in on matchups and use their best defensemen against top forwards. That clearly has not been the case for Boston’s top unit, which has had little trouble with any of the Maple Leafs’ defensive units.

“We are communicating after almost every shift about what we’re seeing and trying to change things up,” Bergeron said. “That being said, yeah, we had some good looks in the first two games, but we can’t stop there.”

It’s not as though the Bruins are just running one line out there all game. That trio actually averaged less time on ice than some of the other top lines around the league, like Tampa Bay’s unit of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller, or the Colorado Avalanche’s unit of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. Both of those lines have averaged more than a minute more on ice per game than Boston’s so far.

Bergeron, Pastrnak and Marchand have been playing like they have played together for their whole lives. But in reality, the group did not even start the season together. Instead, Bergeron and Marchand were paired up on the top line, while David Krejci and Pastrnak worked on the second unit. At that point, Cassidy was simply trying to give his offense more depth.

But as injuries struck, Cassidy had to try something to get his offense going. Creating one top line was the solution, and it stuck.

“Once they started playing well together, it was hard to break them up,” Cassidy said. “It kind of evolved where we started winning games and that line could stay together and we were getting offense elsewhere.”

A big part of that has been the effort from the Bruins’ secondary scoring. So far this postseason, 12 of Boston’s 19 skaters who have played have tallied at least one point. Six of those skaters have multiple points.

But no unit has come close to the production Boston’s first line has provided. And if they keep playing this way, no one will.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.