Bruins lose Pavel Zacha to upper-body injury in win over Coyotes
"It's a hard guy to replace, but we can do it throughout the lineup."
The Bruins’ center depth took a hit on Saturday afternoon.
Boston’s top-line pivot Pavel Zacha played just 6:42 of ice time against the Coyotes on Saturday, with the 26-year-old forward ruled out after the first period of play due to an upper-body injury.
Following Boston’s eventual 5-3 win at TD Garden, Jim Montgomery did not have a definitive timeline on how long the top-six forward is expected to be out.
“I’ll have more Monday,” Montgomery noted. “I just know it’s upper body. I haven’t seen him yet and talked to the doctors.”
It’s unclear how Zacha was injured against Arizona, with the forward anchoring a top line between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak over the first 20 minutes of regulation on Saturday.
Zacha has made the most of his added reps following the offseason retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci — scoring eight goals and 19 points in 26 games.
With Zacha ruled out for a majority of Saturday’s matinee matchup, Charlie Coyle double-shifted at times with Boston’s top-six unit — finishing with a goal over 20:17 ice time while winning 17 of his 22 face-offs.
Morgan Geekie earned a promotion from the fourth line to a middle-six role down the middle, finishing with 17:31 of ice time and recording a primary assist on David Pastrnak’s second goal of the afternoon in the third period.
Trent Frederic (15:13 TOI) also earned a few looks over at center in the third period, while Matt Poitras was kept off the ice in the third period by Montgomery. Poitras finished with just 8:26 of ice time in the win.
“Everyone takes a little more responsibility and you have to be on guard and bring more focus because the lines are going to be kind of shuffled around,” Coyle said of Boston’s shorthanded center grouping. “You don’t really know who’s going with you.
“So you’ve got to make sure your name is called or if you’re going, there’s gonna be a lot of talking on the bench, a lot of talking on the ice. Everyone takes a little more ownership when someone goes down, especially someone of the caliber like Pavel Zacha. It’s a hard guy to replace, but we can do it throughout the lineup and I’d say we did a pretty good job for the most part.”
The Bruins have been bit by the injury bug over the last few days.
Boston announced on Thursday morning that defenseman Derek Forbort was getting placed on long-term injured reserve due to a nagging lower-body injury, prompting the team to recall Mason Lohrei from Providence. Forbort will be eligible to return from LTIR on Dec. 31 for Boston’s road game against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Bruins also played on Saturday without Charlie McAvoy, who was ruled out due to an upper-body injury that he suffered during Thursday’s loss to the Sabres.
However, Montgomery offered up some good news on Saturday morning — noting that McAvoy has made “significant improvement”. McAvoy will have ample time to rest up before Boston’s next game, with the Bruins set to play the Devils on the road Wednesday night.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com