David Pastrnak admits the truth after public callout
The Bruins sniper was directly challenged by his coach, and responded in kind.
The Boston Bruins were not getting the kind of production that they needed out of star forward David Pastrnak in their Round 1 Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, as he had tallied only two goals through the first six games.
In fact, he was publicly called out by head coach Jim Montgomery:
“Your best players need to be your best players this time of year,” he said after Game 6. “I think the effort is tremendous, but they need to come through with some big-time plays in big-time moments. Marchand has done that in this series; Pasta needs to step up.”
Pastrnak responded exactly the way that a top player is expected. He scored the overtime game-winning and series-winning goal to eliminate the Leafs in Game 7 on Saturday night at TD Garden:
And for Pastrnak, he had no problem with being publicly called out by Montgomery. In fact, he admitted that he would have done the same had he been in Montgomery's shoes.
“It obviously helped,” Pastrnak said. “I told him, ‘If I’m the coach and you were me, I’d say the same thing.’ I had no problem with him saying that because he’s trying to bring the best out of every single player. I just took it as a man and tried to be better. I admitted I had to be better, and I still have ways to be better.”
Meanwhile, Montgomery returned the favor by calling Pastrnak's performance in Game 7 "dynamic".
"I thought he was dynamic tonight," Montgomery said in his postgame media availability session. “I thought he had his most possession time; he was creating shots, taking what was available, and not forcing things.”
After "Pasta" netted 47 goals during the regular season, Montgomery was right to call out his lack of production, and the end result was a career-highlight and a trip to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
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