Pavel Zacha’s Olympic dream ended before it began.
The Bruins’ center had to be dropped from the Czechia Olympic team roster because of the upper body injury he suffered in the January 29 game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Zacha had held out hope that he would be able to play in the Milan-Cortina Games but on Saturday he had to be replaced on the roster by Filip Chlapik of he Czech Extraliaga. The loss of Zacha, who was one of the first group of players named to the roster, puts dent into Czecia’s medal hopes.
The question now is how long will Zacha be sidelined.
The Bruins’ next game is a big one on February 26 at the Garden against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are four points behind the B’s for the second wild card. The games then come fast and furious. They have 16 games in 29 days n March. A healthy Zacha will be vital for the B’s to secure a playoff spot. Zacha has 15-22-37 totals while centering a line with Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson, which has drawn the toughest defensive assignments on most nights.
The timing of the injury has to be particularly heartbreaking for Zacha, who has been one of the B’s most durable players in his three plus seasons here. Before this season, he played 242 of 246 games. This season, he’s played in 54 of 57 games.
Meanwhile, a couple of B’s players were were visible already at the Games. Zacha’s countryman David Pastrnak was a flag bearer for Czechia at the opening ceremonies.
And Team USA’s Charlie McAvoy sent out a cheeky (literally and figuratively) post on X. One of half of the post was the slow motion video of Florida Panther Sandis Vilmanis’ flying elbow to the head of the Bruin defenseman side-by-side with the end result of it, which was a picture of McAvoy’s surgically repaired jaw severely swollen.
That was apparently McAvoy’s comment on how he felt about the decision to give Vilmanis receiving just a two-minute penalty (the B’s wound up shorthanded after a roughing penalty and a bench minor in response to the hit) and the Department of Player Safety’s decision not to give any supplemental discipline to Vilmanis.
Vilmanis did not play for the rest of the game after the first period hit. The Panthers announced he did not play because of an upper body injury, but he was back in the lineup the next night in Tampa.
Ironically, Team USA’s first game is on February 12 against Vilmanis’ Latvian team.
