When the NHL suspended its regular season in mid-March,\u00a0David Pastrnak’s quest for 50 goals was put on hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, that quest officially ended when Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that when the league does resume play, it will jump directly to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 48 goals in 70 games, the 24-year-old budding superstar finishes just shy of the elusive half-century mark, a milestone that no Bruin has reached since Cam Neely in the 1993-94 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, five Bruins have scored at least 50 goals in a season: Phil Esposito (5 times), Neely (3 times), Rick Middleton, Ken Hodge, and Johnny Bucyk. With a dozen games left in the regular season, Pastrnak easily would have become the sixth Bruin with a 50-goal campaign if the global COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t halted the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Pastrnak was still able to achieve a feat that no Bruin has accomplished since the mid-70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His 48 goals are tied with\u00a0Alex Ovechkin\u00a0for the most in the NHL this season, meaning the two players will share the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal-scorer. Pastrnak becomes the first Bruin to lead the league in scoring since Esposito accomplished the feat in six straight seasons, from 1969-70 to 1974-75.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastrnak, who also led the league with 20 power-play goals and tied for the league lead with 10 game-winning goals, becomes only the fifth Bruin who played the entire season in Boston to lead the league in goals, joining Esposito, Bronco Horvath (tied with Bobby Hull in 1959-60), Roy Conacher (in 1938-39), and Cooney Weiland (in 1929-30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n