Zacha putting together career season to help fuel Bruins playoff chase

BOSTON -- Pavel Zacha knew he could have, perhaps should have, been in Italy in February for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. He had been named as one of the first six players to Team Czechia, along with teammate David Pastrnak, and he and his Boston Bruins team were performing better than expected midway through the season. 

But then came an upper-body injury on Jan. 29, the withdrawal from the Olympics, the Olympic break spent away from the center of the hockey world. 

The 28-year-old struggled. 

He had little interest in watching the Olympics; it hurt too much. So instead, he focused on what he could do, not what he couldn’t. It has paid off. In 12 games since returning from the break, Zacha has 14 points (eight goals, six assists), and has an NHL career-high 23 goals, topping the 21 he scored in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He has 51 points, just eight off his NHL career-high 59 in 2023-24. 

“Missing the Olympics was something that was not the best mentally for me, but I was thinking about the whole break, how can I come back and be a difference maker?” Zacha said. 

He has found the answer. 

The eight goals since Feb. 26 mark is tied for fourth in the NHL with seven other players, behind Anaheim Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier (10), Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and Colorado Avalanche forward Martin Necas (nine each).

It’s coming at exactly the right time for a Bruins team locked in a battle to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with another crucial game against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC). The two teams, each at 38-23-8, are tied for the two wild card spots into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference, with the Bruins holding the regulation wins tie breaker (28-27). 

Zacha has taken his disappointment and he has channeled it.

“It was a little depressing at the beginning, but then got me motivated,” he said. “Just what I can control is, at the end of the season, it looks like I can give it my all. … The Olympics is one of the things I was looking forward to most. So missing that, it was just kind of a mindset like, OK, there’s things I can control in life.”

But it’s also not just him. Since coach Marco Sturm put Zacha back at center on the second line, with Casey Mittelstadt moving to wing and Viktor Arvidsson on the other side, the line has been perhaps the Bruins’ most consistent. 

“I think that kind of took off after that,” Arvidsson said. “'Pavs' is just so good with his speed and tenacity in the D zone and going up and down the ice, so I think that helped us a lot, freed up Casey to push out and make plays and delay. I think we’ve had the chemistry the whole time, it was just a matter of positioning.”

On Thursday, in a dominating 6-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden, the trio was responsible for the third and fourth goals, boosting the Bruins to a 4-0 lead by the 3:15 mark of the third period. As Sturm said of the third goal, “It was not pretty, but that’s how they play.”

“I think we have fun together,” Arvidsson said. “We talk about stuff and joke about stuff on the bench too, and I think that’s the most important thing. That creates chemistry. I think we’re just really connected and we know where each other are and what the other guy likes to do. It’s just a really good mix of speed, playmaking skills and people going to the net too.”

It’s a line cobbled together through trades, representing some of general manager Don Sweeney’s savviness, from the 1-for-1 swap with the New Jersey Devils for Zacha in exchange for forward Erik Haula on July 13, 2022, that might stand as one of his top moves, to netting Mittelstadt (and prospect Will Zellers and the No. 61 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Colorado Avalanche for Charlie Coyle and a fifth-round pick in 2026), to stealing Arvidsson for a fifth-round pick in 2027 from the Edmonton Oilers. 

They were all unwanted at some point by their respective teams, all looking to rebuild and refashion their careers. 

That includes Zacha, who struggled through seven seasons with the Devils never feeling like he could find his footing. He believed he was best as a center, but New Jersey had Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier ahead of him. 

He has found that footing in Boston. And, he believes he still has much growth ahead of him. 

“I think there’s a lot of things you can get better (at), especially as a center,” Zacha said. “You can see a lot of centermen in the League, they’re almost getting better until they’re 34, 35, because it’s all about reading the game. 

“When I came here, (David Krejci) and (Patrice) Bergeron, maybe skating wise they weren’t as fast and physically they weren’t hitting every guy that they saw, but just how they read the game, you can get better as a player. 

“I’m still 28, so I’m excited I can keep even getting better physically in my career. That’s the exciting part for me.”