It has been a rocky season for the Boston Bruins, a team with such high expectations throughout the offseason. Struggling to consistently stay in a playoff spot for the better part of the last month, the Bruins are clawing tooth and nail to get points, trying to battle the injury bug, poor special teams and an inconsistent all-around effort. On most nights, it seems the Bruins are not a team, as it’s often only a few good players playing at a high level while the players around them are struggling, bringing down the momentum of the team as a whole.
However, since the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, Boston’s best player – David Pastrnak – has put the team on his back and done everything in his power to keep the Bruins alive in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt.
Bruins David Pastrnak Is Dominating in January
For most of the season, Pastrnak has hovered around an 80-point pace, significantly lower than his usual 100-plus point campaigns that fans around the league have become accustomed to. With Boston having team-wide scoring issues plagued by a bottom-feeding power play, there haven’t been many games where Pastrnak can explode offensively, especially scoring goals. From the beginning of the season back in October to the end of December, Pastrnak had 13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points in 39 games, scoring at an average of one in every three games, which is not good enough.
Since then, Pastrnak has exploded, scoring 10 goals in 11 January games combined with his nine assists for 19 points in that time span. That point total ranks first among Bruins, nine more than the second-place Pavel Zacha and 11 more than Morgan Geekie – both of which are linemates of Pastrnak. After that trio? Brad Marchand with six points in 11 games. Strictly in the goals category, Geekie falls in second, having six goals in the month of January. Below him are six other Bruins with only two goals each.

The heavy uptick in production in the last three weeks has boosted Pastrnak’s 82-game point pace to 92 points and if the hot streak continues, that can very well become a potential 100-point season again for the Czech forward.
It hasn’t been just basic goals and assists either, as Pastrnak is driving Boston’s offense as a whole in chance generation as well. In January, he has taken over 50 more shots than the next-highest Bruin (135 shots taken, Marchand second with 80), leads the team in individual expected goals for (ixG), individual scoring chances (107) and fourth-most high-danger scoring chances (34). Additionally, he has the highest individual points percentage (IPP), which measures the percentage of goals the player was on the ice for that he recorded a point, with a staggering 91.18% (Vinni Letteri has a 100% but only has five games played this season).
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Boston attempted to address the lack of offensive depth slightly in the offseason, but with the disappointment of Elias Lindholm so far and players no longer playing at a career-high pace, their dependency on Pastrnak to take over games has increased and done so dramatically. In games where Pastrnak has scored, the Bruins have gone 13-5-2. In games where he does not? 11-15-4. To go one step further, he has gone pointless in 16 games in 2024-25 and in those games, Boston has an abysmal 2-11-3 record.
Pastrnak Among the Top Scorers League-Wide
At some point, having such strong numbers in a short timespan will eventually have you crawling up the NHL leaderboards and Pastrnak is doing just that. Earlier in the week, he was named the Third Star of the Week for the week ending Jan. 19 with his six points in two games in games against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.
Logan Thompson (@Capitals), Filip Forsberg (@PredsNHL) and David Pastrnak (@NHLBruins) have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” presented by GEICO for the week ending Jan. 19.#NHLStats: https://t.co/pkfLMC7B50 pic.twitter.com/A9Fqq4P6ir
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 20, 2025
Additionally, since 2025 began, Pastrnak leads the NHL in goals (10), points (19), even-strength goals (eight), even-strength points (15), shots on goal (52) and second in points-per-game (1.73). Even dating back another month to Dec. 1, he is still top five in points and third in goals. His game has shifted into another gear that is similar to his 60-goal season back in 2022-23.
The production increase has led to Pastrnak jumping up in the overall leaderboards, crawling up to be top-12 in goals and after his two-point outing in the win over the Senators on Jan. 23, he is now officially top-ten in points, tied with New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes. Pile all that with the fact that Pastrnak was very slow out of the gate in comparison to past seasons, it makes his season look a lot less worrisome than it once did. There is a realistic scenario for him to still score 35 goals and 100 points, a very respectable “down season”.
Bruins Need Pastrnak to Continue Amidst Heated Playoff Race
In order for the Bruins to make the playoffs this season, they will need Pastrnak to continue this level of play up until game 82 in April. As it stands currently, they are third in the Atlantic Division on pure points, but are out of a wild card spot in points percentage. With more games played than most of the other teams battling for an Eastern playoff spot, Boston has to steal every point they can muster – with heavy emphasis on the divisional and conference matchups.
If it takes Pastrnak to drive the offensive attack with Geekie and Zacha alongside him for Boston to sneak their way past the likes of the Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning, and New York Rangers, then that is their avenue. Pastrnak is the Bruins’ top guy both skill and money-wise – he is expected to perform at ultra-high levels and as long as he’s doing so, they have a chance to win every game.