Marco Sturm and the Bruins were more than happy to welcome David Pastrnak back to their lineup Tuesday night in St. Louis.
Without stating the obvious here, he’s well, y’know, David Pastrnak. But he’s also a player whose mere presence would give the Bruins’ offensive lineup even more balance. And on Tuesday night, that may have been selling it short, as No. 88’s return to the lineup in a third-line role allowed the B’s bottom-six forward group to downright dominate for a 5-2 win.
In fact, it was Boston’s bottom-six grouping that accounted for all four of Boston’s goals on the Blues’ Joel Hofer before Pavel Zacha’s empty-net dagger late in the third period. (Of course, is it really a bottom six line if Pastrnak is playing on one of the lines? But I digress.)
With the victory, the Bruins have rattled off three straight wins, swept the season series over former head coach Jim Montgomery’s club, and and are now a season-high five games over .500.
Here’s a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game…
3rd Star: Sean Kuraly
Nov 23, 2025; San Jose, California, USA; Bruins center Sean Kuraly (52) warms up before the game against the Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose. (David Gonzales/Imagn Images)
Fourth-line center Sean Kuraly is one of those players who’s beyond happy to do the grunt work for the Bruins. Hell, he left his hometown Blue Jackets to come back to Boston and once again do that for the Bruins. And most nights, it’ll go a little unnoticed or under-appreciated at the very least, especially if you just look at the end-of-night box score.
But on Tuesday night, Kuraly had himself a night, with two assists and a forward-leading 16:00 of time on ice in the Bruins’ 5-2 victory. The Bruins also controlled on-ice shots by a 6-3 mark with Kuraly on the ice at five-on-five play, and outscored the Blues 2-0 over that span.
2nd Star: Fraser Minten
Dec 9, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Bruins center Fraser Minten (93) is congratulated by teammates after scoring against the Blues at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images)
Imagine being a third-line center, coming to the rink and seeing that you’re getting David Pastrnak as a linemate? Fraser Minten didn’t have to imagine that, as it was instead his reality on Tuesday night.
And Minten decided to take advantage of that opportunity by way of the first two-goal performance of his NHL career.
Beyond the obvious of the production itself, you had to like how Minten didn’t defer to Pastrnak throughout the night, which is often the challenge a young player faces when paired with an established superstar. Instead, Minten seemed to really take on the role of being a shooter on that line, with a line-high four shots on goal in the winning effort.
1st Star: Mark Kastelic
Dec 9, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Bruins center Mark Kastelic (47) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Blues at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
If we want to get technical, Mark Kastelic was demoted on Tuesday night. Now, the Bruins did have a relatively even distribution of their forward lines in the victory, so it wasn’t the end of the world either way. But, again, technically speaking, Kastelic was demoted down the roster.
… And he responded exactly how you would’ve wanted any player ‘demoted’ to respond, with a pair of goals, including the game winner.
Skating on a line with Kuraly and Tanner Jeannot, Kastelic continued to do what he does, and was a physical force for the Black and Gold throughout this game. His line consistently worked the Blues along the boards, behind the net, and into the high-danger areas of the attacking zone. They were a seek and destroy kind of line for the Bruins in this contest, and when they weren’t doing that, it was seek and annoy.
The two-goal performance was Kastelic’s first two-goal game since Oct. 10, 2024 against the Canadiens, and has now put him just one goal shy of his career-high (seven goals during the 2022-23 season).