{"id":437100,"date":"2026-01-29T15:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437100\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:43:18","slug":"an-eventful-day-for-bruins-included-4-hour-bus-ride-ot-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437100\/","title":{"rendered":"An eventful day for Bruins included 4-hour bus ride, OT win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Bruins\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThose are the games we’ll talk about after our careers and stuff like that are done.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tDavid Pastrnak (No. 88) celebrates with Bruins teammates Charlie McAvoy (No. 73) and Marat Khusnutdinov (No. 92) after scoring the winning goal in a 3-2 overtime victory against the Predators Tuesday night at TD Garden. Finn Gomez for the Boston Globe\t<\/p>\n

Tuesday stood as a blast from the past for David Pastrnak and his Bruins teammates \u2014 for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

Life in the NHL is spent adhering to a frantic 82-game schedule, with chartered flights and five-star hotel stays woven into the itinerary to maximize rest and curtail time spent in transit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far cry from the youth-hockey circuit and even those daunting campaigns in the AHL, where road games are often charted through plodding bus rides down the Eastern seaboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Pastrnak \u2014 who started his pro career playing in Providence \u2014 Tuesday\u2019s commute felt more akin to a trek to Allentown or Hershey than a back-to-back slate in the NHL ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s been a while. More like in Europe back when I played in Sweden \u2014 there were always long rides like this,\u201d Pastrnak said of Boston\u2019s four-plus-hour drive back to Boston on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Boston was already destined to have tired legs on Tuesday night for their home game against the Nashville Predators \u2014 less than 24 hours after they came up short against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The swath of brutal weather that rocked most of the U.S. over the weekend didn\u2019t make it any easier for Marco Sturm\u2019s team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After leaving Manhattan with a 4-3 overtime loss, their scheduled flight home late on Monday night was canceled due to the still unfavorable conditions, with the team heading back to their hotel in hopes of better news in the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With multiple flights still grounded and a game on Causeway Street set for Tuesday night, the Bruins received an early morning wake-up call \u2014 with three buses taking the team from New York back to the Boston area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was no movie or on-board entertainment to make the snow-swept drive any easier \u2014 nor was one sought out for a weary Bruins roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBoys were pretty tired,\u201d Pastrnak said of the ride. \u201cIt\u2019s an early bus. Obviously, it\u2019s tough to fall asleep after the game. \u2026 Everybody tried to get as much rest and and peace and quiet as we could. Not much energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With puck drop set for 7:00 at TD Garden, the Bruins made it back to Hanscom Field in Bedford to retrieve their cars \u2014 buried under nearly two feet of snow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bruins didn\u2019t have to break out their shovels after getting off the bus, however, as Boston\u2019s skating and skills coach John McLean cleared all the snow and ice off the team\u2019s various cars before their arrival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe him a couple beers,\u201d Morgan Geekie said. \u201cAnd then our chefs came out to the airport as well to give us some pre-game [meals]. \u201cSo like I said, it takes a village. And everybody stepped up today, no matter how it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

As unorthodox as Tuesday\u2019s travel itinerary was, the Bruins didn\u2019t let it derail them from capturing two points against Nashville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite coughing up a third-period lead for the second-straight game, the Bruins got back in the win column via a 3-2 overtime victory over the Predators, with Pastrnak lighting the lamp just 15 seconds into the extra period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not ideal, obviously,\u201d Pastrnak said of the eventful 24 hours. \u201cIt was a long day. Yeah, it was tough. But that\u2019s what makes the win special, the way we grinded it out and did it together as a group.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More rest will be prescribed on Wednesday for the Bruins, who have won 11 of their last 14 games and are now six points clear of any of the teams below them as the final wild-card club in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018When you\u2019re kind of faced with adversity, a little bit like that \u2014 it\u2019s easy to kind of throw in the towel and make some excuses,\u201d Geekie said. \u201cBut I think it just speaks to the character of the group that we know nothing\u2019s going to come easy, and we\u2019re ready to battle through adversity, whatever that may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the games we\u2019ll talk about after our careers and stuff like that are done. So it\u2019s nice to get the two points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

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