Freya waves to her dad as he pulls out of the driveway and heads to work.
“I will miss you! Bye bye! I love you!” Pastrnak yells out as he turns onto the street.
Pastrnak has yet to tell Freya about his captaincy; he doesn’t think she would understand quite yet. But Pastrnak credits his family as one of the main reasons he is in this position.
“We don’t talk hockey much at home,” he said. “But I will definitely explain it to her one day what it means. I hope she will be proud of me one day. We barely talk about hockey. She enjoys it; she thinks it is fun, but she doesn’t understand it’s actually serious and my job. She just thinks it’s a fun playdate for her with the other kids.”
When Pastrnak first addressed the media after Sunday’s announcement, he hadn’t had time yet to call his mom and share the good news. They’ve shared plenty of chats since then.
“I called my brother and my mom together. It was special. We definitely enjoyed the talk. It was emotional, definitely. I could feel the proudness of them. They’re a big reason why I am who I am today, so it was fun,” Pastrnak said. “Both of them, we have such a close relationship. We are really different, definitely me and my brother, but that’s what I think makes it so special. The little triangle we have with mom and us two.”
As Pastrnak gets closer on his drive to TD Garden, he turns the music on. It is clear Freya’s taste is both fantastic and dominates the family car rides.
“She speaks like three languages. In each language, she has different favorites. She loves to sing…In Czech, she likes to sing about dinosaurs,” Pastrnak said. “My first five songs on Spotify latest results are kids’ songs and two times of 10 hours of white noise.”
The captain pulls into the garage, as he always does, and parks in his designated spot, as he always does. One thing, though, is different. Pastrnak grabs a tupperware container to carry with him. Inside lies a tiramisu square topped with berries.
“I actually saw somewhere online that tiramisu is the best snack for athletes…Apparently it has the sugar, caffeine in it. I read it somewhere, but I never tried it. Today is going to be the first time I try it, so we will see. And I’m starving. Usually the snack you eat when you get to the rink – two and a half hours away from the game,” Pastrnak said. “I don’t like sweets that much, actually, so for me tiramisu is a big deal. I’m more of a salty guy, but I don’t think chips would be good before a game.”
Turns out, it worked pretty well. After a scoreless 40 minutes against the Rangers, Boston exploded for three goals in the span of 1:15 to secure the win in front of the home crowd. Fraser Minten’s snapshot at 16:14 made it 1-0 before JJ Peterka – Pastrnak’s linemate – deked around Braden Schneider in front and slipped it past Igor Shesterkin at 17:06.
