As game time neared on Monday night for Game 1 of the Bruins’ first-round matchup with the Florida Panthers, uncertainty was in the air, as the status of captain Patrice Bergeron remained unclear.
When pregame warmups began about a half hour ahead of the 7:30 p.m. puck drop, the TD Garden crowd looked on to see if Bergeron would take the ice. He did not.
The absence of a team’s captain and top center would be a concern for any NHL team this time of year, but for the Bruins they had a backup option that could seamlessly fill the gap: Pavel Zacha.
No Bergeron, no problem for Bruins in Game 1
Why Zacha works as a good fill-in for Bergeron
When the Bruins traded for Zacha over the summer, he commented that Bergeron was a player he had modeled his game after as he developed, particularly his two-way style of play.
“I watched him a lot, someone you look up to and try to learn from,” Zacha said in his introductory press conference on Aug. 9.
Filling in for a future Hall of Famer is no easy task, but Zacha’s similarities helped him do the job.
Both Bergeron and Zacha are great defenders, can play the bumper on the power play and can effectively kill off penalties. In Game 1, Zacha added an assist on Jake DeBrusk’s goal and played over a minute on both the power play and penalty kill.
“He’s a Hall-of-Famer kind of player, so it’s hard to say. I just try to do my best there, playing a two-way game, playing with Marchy [Brad Marchand] and JD [Jake DeBrusk] there,” Zacha said. “I’m trying to do my best to do what he does. He’s one of the best players in the league, so it’s hard for me to be on his level, but I’m trying my best.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery described what’s made Zacha effective in all of his roles recently.
“He wins a lot of battles for us now. He kills a lot of plays, he wins battles, protects pucks, makes plays,” Montgomery said the morning after the Bruins’ Game 1 win. “To me, I think it’s how hard he is with his skill and his ability off the puck because he wants to be first on pucks. Because of that he’s just helped build our team game.”
Zacha found out he’d be slotting in on the first line Monday morning, though Bergeron’s status was listed as a ‘game-time decision.’ Bergeron was ruled out with an illness that has affected multiple players on the team, and hasn’t played since being pulled in the first period in game 82 in Montreal for an upper-body injury.
Bergeron may remain out of the lineup even longer. At Tuesday’s practice, Montgomery said Bergeron was doing better but is “questionable” for Game 2.
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If Bergeron were to miss another game in the series, Zacha’s performance in the first-line center role in Game 1 shows the Bruins’ depth should be able to cover the gap until their captain is healthy enough to return.
Zacha’s growth and potential as a No. 1 center
As Zacha’s first season in Boston has progressed, he has continued to show growth in different aspects of his game, both as a winger and as a center.
He came to Boston after seven years in New Jersey where he didn’t quite reach the expectations of a sixth overall draft pick and top center prospect.
In his introductory press conference, Zacha described his usage as a center in New Jersey as secondary to his usage as a winger, with 70% of his shifts being as a winger in his final two seasons with the Devils.
“It’s been great to see. He’s a great guy, he works hard, and to see his growth from Jersey till now and the start of the season till now, it’s been awesome for our team,” Taylor Hall said Tuesday after Zacha’s impactful performance in Game 1.
Hall, who also played with Zacha in New Jersey, has seen a longer arc of Zacha’s career progression in the NHL.
For Zacha, a new definition of his role in Boston helped kick off his transformation into a potential No. 1 or 2 center.
“It’s impressive. I played with him in Jersey and I saw the potential that he had,” Hall said. “Quite frankly, I saw him not really have a role there, and not really have an identity as a player that was given to him. And I think once he got here, he was coached very well, he was given a lot of opportunity, and he made the best of it. He’s got so much skill and speed and he’s a big guy, super nice kid. He’s maybe too nice at times.”
Zacha has already made himself a fixture as a top-six forward for Boston, and all along the Bruins organization had hoped he could be a solution as a No. 1 or 2 center when Bergeron and David Krejci retire in the near future.
“We’re very confident with Zacha in the middle. In the future he’s going to be an excellent top-two center for us and he showed that tonight,” Montgomery said after Monday’s Game 1 victory.
Zacha finished the regular season with new career highs in goals (21), assists (36) and points (57). It is the only season of his eight-year career that he has scored over 20 goals.
The Bruins have used him at wing a majority of the time, though they’ve ramped up his center reps in the second half of the season, and with more reps at the faceoff dot he’s improved there as well.
“I don't know what he’s done in his career honestly or what his faceoff percentage was, but also being around Krejci, Nosek, Bergeron helps you. They talk about the art of winning faceoffs. He’s a student of the game, so he picks up stuff real easily,” Montgomery said of Zacha after Tuesday’s practice.
The versatility of Zacha has allowed the Bruins the flexibility to move him around the lineup, and he has proven he can be trusted in what may be the most important role - the team’s top-line center.
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