McDavid, Pastrnak set for matchup of top NHL goal-scorers

BOSTON -- Even a guy who has spent most of his career playing alongside Patrice Bergeron, a guy who has seen his fair share of unbelievable goal-scorers, who played on a line with Sidney Crosby at the World Cup of Hockey 2016, sometimes just has to stop and marvel.

"What
[Connor] McDavid
's doing in the League right now, it's truly incredible," Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand said. "He's definitely one of the best players to ever play the game. It's special to watch firsthand. We only get to see him twice a year.
"But watching the highlights each night, seeing what he does, and finally getting to play against him? We're still fans of the game, and it's a lot of fun to witness history firsthand and to be able to say we all played against him."
Marchand will get a chance to see McDavid again Thursday, when the Edmonton Oilers come to town to try to end the Bruins' 10-game winning streak (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, HULU, SN, TVAS, SN NOW). It's the second game in 11 days between these two teams and thus the second time the top two goal-scorers in the NHL will have faced off in that span.

McDavid, the Oilers center, is first with an NHL career-high 54 goals, 10 more than Bruins forward David Pastrnak, who is four goals from his own NHL high of 48, set in 2019-20 when he shared the Maurice Richard Trophy, awarded to the top goal-scorer in the NHL, with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
McDavid has a League-leading 124 points (70 assists) in 65 games; Pastrnak is fourth with 84 points (40 assists) in 62 games.
"Two of the best players in the game," Boston forward Jake DeBrusk said. "Connor is doing things that no one else can do. It's one of those things where it'll be fun to play against him.
"I think that's probably going to be our [line's] matchup, if I had to guess, so I'll be seeing him every shift praying to God he doesn't have one of those nights."
Because some nights that feels like the only way to handle McDavid.
When the teams faced each other last Monday, McDavid scored two goals -- two of the 12 he's scored in the past eight games -- but the Bruins won 3-2. Pastrnak was held without a goal, but he provided the primary assist on the game-winner by Pavel Zacha.
"Don't let him touch the puck, that's what we learned," Boston coach Jim Montgomery said of McDavid. "What can you say? I thought we played a really good game last time, he still had two goals and he still made three passes for one-timers. [He's like] Michael Jordan -- you don't stop him, you hope to contain him.
"[Tonight] we can hopefully hold him to one goal or one assist."
He added of the legendary North Carolina basketball coach, "I wish Dean Smith would coach him, put four corners out there."

Even the players tasked with playing against McDavid are trying to glean things from him while doing their best to stop him. If they can.
"You try to take things as an offensive player, see what he does to try to do or emulate anything similar," DeBrusk said. "I think that's how I look at it. … You're going to have to bring your best. You're going to have to bring your A-game and do anything you can to hopefully make them play in their end as much as possible and put some in their net."
That's where Pastrnak comes in.
"One of the best shooters in the NHL," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Somebody who I think displays a passion to play the game. And is the, almost the emotional catalyst on that team. So we're going to have our hands full in trying to contain him."
Edmonton forward Zach Hyman knows a little bit about that, having seen Pastrnak in the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, going back to Hyman's days with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2015-21.
"Pastrnak is a really elite offensive player," Hyman said. "I think one of the underrated things he does is he's really, really competitive and he's actually physical and strong on the puck. That probably goes a little bit unnoticed because of his shot and his ability to score. But playing against him a ton, you notice that he competes hard."

In the end, though, the points and the accolades are impressive for McDavid, but his teammates say that's ultimately not what he wants. He wants what Pastrnak has, a team that seems bound for greatness.
The Bruins (49-8-5), who lead the NHL with 103 points, are the favorites to win the Presidents' Trophy for the best record in the League and on the cusp of clinching a playoff berth with more than a month to go. The Oilers (35-22-8) hold the first wild card from the Western Conference and are two points behind the Seattle Kraken for third place in the Pacific Division.
"I thought as a team we did a good job in Edmonton [against Pastrnak], but in the end we didn't find the two points we wanted in Edmonton," Woodcroft said Wednesday. "We played a good game, but we didn't get what we wanted. Tomorrow, that's what we're looking to do, is to get what we want, which is two points."
McDavid will have a say in that. So will Pastrnak. And the rest of them will feel lucky to see it all.
As Marchand said, "It's special when the two of them are on the ice."