BOSTON - Milan Lucic. Tyler Seguin. Patrice Bergeron. Brad Marchand. The list goes on and on of Boston Bruins who have not scored forty goals in a season. In fact, the last Bruin to net forty individual goals during a regular season was Glen Murray, who skated for the team way back in the 2002-03 season. That is why it was such a big deal last night when David Pastrnak became the first Bruin in 17 to score 40 goals.

In last night's game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins looked dominant as they flexed their muscles in terms of what they do best. Bergeron scored his 24th goal of the year, Marchand racked up two assists, Tuukka Rask (the league's leading goalie) allowed just one goal and saved 28 other shots. It was a solid effort all around from the Bruins' stars and they ended up prevailing over their rivals by a score of 4-1. They advanced to 35-11-12 on the season with the victory.

But this, of course, was not the game's major takeaway. The star was Pastrnak, who came into the game with 38 goals and left with 41, per NESN. That's right, not only did Pastrnak achieve 40 goals for the Bruins, but he pulled off a hat trick to do it! His first goal was in the first period, as assisted by Marchand. He followed that up with a Sean Kuraly-assisted goal in the second period. Finally, on a power play, Pastrnak clocked in his forty-first goal on a power-play assist from Marchand. He is undeniably one of the best players in the league and a major contender for the Hart Trophy.

After all, if you couple his 41 goals with his 40 assists this season, Pastrnak has 81 points, which is good for second in the NHL. He trails only Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl, who has 89. In terms of goals, however, Pastrnak is in first place. Toronto's Auston Matthews and Washington's Alex Ovechkin are nipping at his heels with 40.

The craziest part of this major milestone for Pastrnak is the fact that the Bruins have only played 58 games so far. In the past, the entirety of the 82 game seasons was not enough for a Bruin to eclipse the 40 goal milestone. But Pastrnak has done it with 24 games remaining on the season! Could he reach 50 goals? Sixty? Who knows how high he can fly because right now, he seems like an undeniable world-beater.

The Bruins next play on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings.

Image via Wikimedia Commons