By: Andrew Taverna | Follow me on Twitter @andrewtaverna
With the NHL Awards in the books this year, three Bruins have been given the NHL All-Star honor. David Pastrnak won first-team honors while fellow teammates Brad Marchand and Tuukka Rask both received second-team honors. These awards mark the end of a relatively successful award season for the Bruins, with Cassidy winning the Jack Adams and the Rask/Halak net-minder combo winning the Jennings Award.
David Pastrnak – First-Team
David Pastrnak won first-team honors for the first time in his NHL career. He is only the second Boston Bruins right-wing in team history to win this award and joins the elite Ken Hodge, who received the honors during the 1970-1971 season and the 1973-1974 season.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsA First Team NHL All-Star for the first time.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) September 21, 2020
Congrats, @pastrnak96! ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/utTSGm1Pan
The 24-year old who earlier this offseason co-won the Rocket Richard Trophy with Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin for leading the NHL in goals scored with 48, had a stunning regular season. In addition to his 48 goals, he had 47 assists totaling 95 points in a shortened 70-game campaign.
Brad Marchand – Second-Team
For the third time in his career, Brad Marchand won the All-Star honor, and the second time in his career, he has won the second-team honor.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCongrats to Wildcats alumnus Brad Marchand on his @NHL 2020 2nd All-Star Team nod. That’s Brad’s third all-star appearance in the last 4 seasons!#DefendTheDen pic.twitter.com/dYmZZvH7aC
— Moncton Wildcats (@monctonwildcats) September 22, 2020
Named to the first-team in the 2016-2017 season and the second-team in the 2018-2019 season, his third win comes this season. Leading the team with 59 assists and contributing 28 goals, Marchand certainly provided plenty of upside to the Bruins offense this year with 87 points. Marchand also provided solid defensive play leading him to place 9th in voting for both the Selke Award and the Hart Trophy.
Tuukka Rask – Second-Team
Tuukka Rask has won his second All-Star honor. His first coming in the 2013-2014 season when he made the first-team All-Star. Rask played in 41 regular-season games during the 2019-2020 season with a record of 26-8-6. He finished the season with a .929 save percentage and a 2.12 goals-against average. The Bruins finished the season with the highest number of points, and Rask personally had the best goals-against average, making him a strong choice to win the award. As mentioned previously, in addition to winning his second-team All-Star vote, Rask and Halak won the William M. Jennings Trophy earlier this month for “having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it.”
With all of Rask’s success this year, his win is another highlight in what has been an outstanding career. With a career .922 save percentage, Rask holds third place on the all-time career save percentage list. The only two goalkeepers ahead of Rask since shots have been recorded in the NHL are all-time greats Dominik Hasek and Johnny Bower.
There’s reason to believe that this team will continue to win for years to come, but with the core getting older and what is likely to be a wild offseason, it’s good to see the Bruins get recognized for their individual contributions to the team and the NHL as a whole.
Check out the new Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast episode 195 that we recorded below on 9-21-20! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher!
Please subscribe to our new Black N’ Gold Hockey YouTube channel! We’d really appreciate the continued support. Click HERE for exciting Black N’ Gold online content!
Leave a Reply