Purple Sox legend Luis Tiant was a giant fan of David Pastrnak’s penalty-shot objective

Bruins

“I like this! Many pitchers been in comparison with me through the years however by no means hockey that was lovely.”

Boston Bruins' David Pastrnak celebrates his goal on a penalty shot during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, in Boston.
David Pastrnak has scored three targets in two video games this season. AP Photograph/Michael Dwyer

Armed with a howitzer of a one-time shot, misleading wrister and an assortment of dekes and dangles saved in his offensive-zone arsenal, Bruins winger David Pastrnak has already drawn loads of comparisons to among the greatest goal-scorers in NHL historical past.

However how a few legendary Purple Sox pitcher?

Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery drew the parallels between Boston’s prime scorer and a former Sox ace following Boston’s 3-2 win over the Predators on Saturday — a contest the place Pastrnak lit the lamp with an illusory penalty-shot snipe.

“I appreciated it. Proper within the prime nook,” Montgomery stated postgame. “He disguised it, sort of appeared like Luis Tiant, proper? He introduced it again behind him.”

Tiant, who pitched for the Purple Sox from 1971-78, commonly befuddled batters together with his distinctive windup — with the righty twisting his physique till his again was absolutely dealing with house plate with a view to disguise his upcoming pitch.

Just like Tiant’s potential to maintain the batter guessing, Pastrnak was capable of protect his supposed goal from Predators goalie Juuse Saros earlier than discovering twine within the prime nook.

Montgomery’s postgame feedback caught the eye of Tiant, who praised Pastrnak’s objective on X, the social-media platform previously generally known as Twitter.

“I like this! Many pitchers been in comparison with me through the years however by no means hockey that was lovely,” Tiant posted.

Talking after the Bruins’ victory over Nashville, Pastrnak acknowledged that the inspiration for his set of strikes towards Saros was truly rooted in one other sport widespread in his native Czech Republic.

“This can be a joke. I don’t know if the game floorball,” Pastrnak stated postgame. “Floorball is a giant sport in Europe. I promised my buddy that I’ll go observe with them. I went and, actually, I used to be horrible. All of them shoot like that.

“I attempted to do this there and I used to be actually dangerous at it, so I attempted it on the ice and was a lot better with it on the ice than I used to be at floorball observe.”