BOSTON — The Toronto Maple Leafs were in good shape. They rolled out their 1-2-2 forecheck when Charlie McAvoy took the puck behind the Boston Bruins net in Tuesday’s second period. Even though David Pastrnak had accelerated from the defensive zone and reached breakaway speed at center ice, it would have been difficult for McAvoy to hit the right wing with a long-distance pass. Nick Robertson was in the neighborhood, positioned to cut off a McAvoy-to-Pastrnak attempt.

The Leafs did not account for Morgan Geekie. They didn’t really have to. The No. 1 left wing was at a standstill at the red line. He was not a threat.

Or so they thought.

As soon as McAvoy released a pass his way, Geekie knew what he was going to do: chip the puck to Pastrnak, who was chasing his 400th career goal.

“That was my only idea,” Geekie said. “If he wasn’t there, it was probably going to be an icing. But that was the only thought I had.”

Geekie and Pastrnak have become the Bruins’ best offensive combination. Last season, Pastrnak’s playmaking helped pull 33 goals out of Geekie. His previous high was 17. This season, Geekie is already at 11.

But Geekie has been just as sharp at springing Pastrnak for strikes. 

“Having a right-handed winger on his left side like Geeks, it’s double danger because of those seams,” Nikita Zadorov said. “It’s a one-timer right away.”

On this occasion, Geekie did not have time to settle McAvoy’s pass and move the puck to Pastrnak. The right wing was flying. If Geekie didn’t get him the puck immediately, he would have sailed offside.

Good thing Geekie has some touch on the links.

“I think he’s a five or six handicap in golf,” Pastrnak said. “You could see there, he has a good wedge. It was a great chip shot to me. And Chucky recognizing I have the speed, that was his mindset to get it to Geeks and over to me.”

By chipping the puck to Pastrnak, Geekie let his linemate slip behind Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe. Geekie knew Pastrnak could handle the rest. He had generated too much speed to be denied.

“He has an unbelievable hockey IQ,” Zadorov said. “You can say he cheats, but cheats in a good way for those chances, those breakaways. You always have to have your head on a swivel.”

One of Pastrnak’s favorite breakaway moves is to pull the puck to his backhand. This forces goalies to drop their pads to the ice. Once goalies go down, Pastrnak likes to move the puck back to his forehand and dunk it into the net. He makes it look easy. It is anything but.

He has to maintain puck control the whole time. At the same time, Pastrnak has to slam on the brakes to scrub off speed. He needs to be rapid with his hands before defenders recover.

Pastrnak pulled everything off. Dennis Hildeby, who went for Pastrnak’s backhand fake, was in another ZIP code when No. 400 went in. 

THEY POUR ONTO THE ICE FOR PASTA 🍝 pic.twitter.com/a8nPXRRGUv

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 12, 2025

“You see him do that move all the time,” Geekie said. “Nobody understands how he does it. But it works a lot of the time.”

Geekie fished the puck out of the net. All of Pastrnak’s teammates rushed to congratulate him, including those on the bench. It made Pastrnak nervous.

“I did not expect it,” Pastrnak said. “I didn’t even know it’s allowed, honestly, for 400 goals. I was worried we were going to get a penalty. I think that’s exactly when it hit me, when the guys came. I’m a very humble guy, coming from where I came from. If you tell me that when I joined this league, I wouldn’t believe you.”

Pastrnak is the 12th active player to score 400 goals. He is the sixth player in team history to reach the milestone. He is one behind Rick Middleton.

“He still has a lot of goals left in him,” coach Marco Sturm said. “It’s going to be great, in the future, to see with how many he’s going to end up.”