{"id":460543,"date":"2026-02-17T05:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/460543\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T05:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:45:11","slug":"bruins-pastrnak-says-he-needs-to-be-better-as-czechia-enters-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/460543\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins’ Pastrnak Says He Needs to Be Better as Czechia Enters Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Pastrnak<\/a> is one of eight Bruins<\/a> at the Olympics, and as the preliminary round comes to a close, he believes he needs to be better for Czechia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through the group stage, Pastrnak has three points (1-2\u20133), including his first Olympic goal<\/a> on Friday against France. He also recorded nine shots in three games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Czechia went 1-0-1-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L); they were blanked in their first game by Canada, then they beat France and lost to Switzerland in overtime. They finished as the eighth seed.<\/p>\n

Czechia plays Denmark at 10:40 AM (Peacock) on Tuesday in the first round of the Olympic playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Czechia\u2019s roster features 12 active NHL players, including three goaltenders, but none draw more attention than the flag-bearer. The Bruins right winger is coming off three straight 100-point seasons. However, it\u2019s Martin Necas<\/a> (COL<\/a>) who leads the team in points; he has two goals and three assists.<\/p>\n

It should not come as a surprise that teams are trying to lock Pastrnak down and keep him off the scoresheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more demanding, teams are scouting and preparing,\u201d Pastrnak said to ISport, a Czech media outlet (translated)<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s normal in hockey. I have to be better, and I believe I will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m used to it,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen the power play comes, it kicks (boosts) you as a player. But when you play five-on-five, you don\u2019t worry about it. You focus on playing well. When I have two players on me, I have to find teammates. And play more in the offensive zone, because we weren\u2019t there very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastrnak spent the preliminary round playing on the first line with Necas and Tomas Hertl<\/a> (VGK<\/a>). That is going to change. Dominik Dubov\u010di of hokej.cz<\/a> reported that Pastrnak was on the first line with Roman \u010cervenka<\/a> and Lukas Sedlak<\/a>. \u010cervenka has worn Czechia\u2019s \u2018C\u2019 since 2018, and he plays with Sedlak on HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The line also played together at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know each other, we played some tournaments together,\u201d Pastrnak said about his new line. \u201cIt\u2019s a simple change. They play together; they are well-coordinated, which is a big advantage. I hope we can build on last year\u2019s [World] Championship, we played quite well there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Czechia skated with the new combination at practice on Monday, and they will deploy the new lines during their game on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The change comes at a critical time. There is no room for error.<\/p>\n

One loss, and Czechia is out of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Regarding the pressure, Pastrnak said, \u201cI don\u2019t notice it, I put the most pressure on myself; I don\u2019t mind the outside world at all. I have huge expectations of myself, whether on the national team or every day in Boston. It\u2019s more like it\u2019s in me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henri Jokiharju<\/a> (FIN) \u2013 GP: 3, G: 0, A: 1, Pts: 1; +\/-: even; PIM: 0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joonas Korpisalo<\/a> (FIN) \u2013 GP: 0, Record: 0-0-0, GAA: N\/A, SV%: N\/A<\/p>\n

Elias Lindholm<\/a> (SWE) \u2013 GP: 2, G: 0, A: 0, Pts: 0; +\/-: -2; PIM: 0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hampus Lindholm<\/a> (SWE) \u2013 GP: 1, G: 0, A: 0, Pts: 0; +\/-: even; PIM: 0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dans Locmelis<\/a> (LAT) \u2013 GP: 3, G: 2, A: 0, Pts: 2; +\/-: -2; PIM: 0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charlie McAvoy<\/a> (USA) \u2013 GP: 3, G: 0, A: 0, Pts: 0; +\/-: +2; PIM: 0\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Pastrnak (CZE) \u2013 GP: 3, G: 1, A: 2, Pts: 3; +\/-: even; PIM: 0<\/p>\n

Jeremy Swayman<\/a> (USA) \u2013 GP: 1, Record: 1-0-0, GAA: 3.00, SV%: .857<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Pastrnak is one of eight Bruins at the Olympics, and as the preliminary round comes to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5099],"tags":[3189,154,95,5132,530,2178,58,5,4,2182],"class_list":["post-460543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-bruins","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-boston","tag-boston-bruins","tag-bostonbruins","tag-bruins","tag-david-pastrnak","tag-featured","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-team-czechia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116084390182137270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}