BOSTON -- Two days, and a lifetime ago, Jim Montgomery sat at a podium in Toronto and sent a message to his biggest offensive threat.
The Boston Bruins had just suffered a second straight defeat in a close-out game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and demons were rearing their heads. Boston wasn’t scoring and he went ahead and said it.
“‘Pasta’ needs to step up,” Montgomery said, after Game 6.
He knew it. David Pastrnak knew it too.
So, it was a relief and a redemption when, at the time the Bruins needed him most, Pastrnak was there.
Defenseman Hampus Lindholm had the puck just behind the red line. Pastrnak started skating up the right side of the ice, slipping to the outside of Mitch Marner, who didn’t appear to know he was there until it was too late. Pastrnak cut across the right circle, catching up to the puck from Lindholm after it bounced off the end boards, placed just so for him to skate across the crease and backhand it past the flattened Ilya Samsonov.
At 1:54 of overtime of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Saturday, Pastrnak had scored the game-winner. It was 2-1, Bruins, and they were moving on to the second round.
He yelled. The team hugged. TD Garden was pandemonium.
“It obviously helped,” Pastrnak said, of the message from Montgomery. “You have this conversation with Jimmy. He said the stuff he did after Game 6. I told him, ‘If I am the coach and you are me, I would say the same thing.’ So, I had no problem of him saying that. He’s trying to bring the best out of every single player and he expects more.
“I just took it as a man and tried to be better. I admitted I need to be better. I still have a ways to be better.”