If anyone needed another example that life is not fair, they should consider the case of Pavel Zacha.<\/p>\n
The Bruins\u2019 centerman has been the model of durability since arriving in Boston in 2022. He has played 296 of a possible 303 games in the regular season and 20 of 20 playoff games.<\/p>\n
But on Jan. in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Zacha suffered an upper body injury that derailed his opportunity to play for Czechia in the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Though he has begun to look forward to the final 25 games of the B\u2019s regular season and possibly beyond, it was a tough blow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the most frustrating things, especially doing something you\u2019re excited for with the Olympics in midseason. Making the decision of not to go was really hard,\u201d said Zacha, who returned to B\u2019s practice on Wednesday. \u201cEven watching the games now it\u2019s a little hard, that I can\u2019t be there and experience it. On the other, not missing too many games in the regular season with the break is also good, that I had the time to slowly come back is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zacha was part of the first group of six players that was named to the team last fall and he no doubt would have played a big part in the Czechs. He spoke with reporters at Warrior Ice Arena shortly before Czechia suffered its heartbreaking overtime loss in its bid to upset tournament favorite Canada in the quarterfinal. A healthy Zacha very well could have made a difference for the Czechs.<\/p>\n
When he suffered the injury, which he appeared to suffer on a Nicolas Deslauriers check, Zacha didn\u2019t think it was going to keep him out of the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought right away that I\u2019m going to be going because I was feeling better and then it was stagnant and it started to get worse,\u201d said Zacha. \u201cFor three days it was good and then it started to get worse in the next five or six days. Within the timeline, I knew (it would be hard to come back) \u2026 it was frustrating, but health is the number one thing. I couldn\u2019t perform at a 100 percent level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zacha said it was a group decision made by the B\u2019s, the Czech federation and himself that he would have to pull the plug on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of talked with (Don) Sweeney and the Czech GM (Jiri Slegr) and figured out a timeline. When it wasn\u2019t working, we talked to Don about just calling the Czech team so they could call up the guy that was next up (Filip Chlapik),\u201d said Zacha. \u201cI think it was a mutual decision of all of us. As a player you want to play. But then hearing the other side of the timelines and everything, it didn\u2019t add up. That\u2019s when we made the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Zacha and the rest of Bruins who didn\u2019t go to the Olympics have to turn their focus to the final 25 games, which will seem like a sprint after most of the NHL players will have had nearly three weeks off. And if there\u2019s a silver lining in missing the Olympics, it is that Zacha should be healthy for them, both for the player and his employer.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking some time off, in the long run for our season, is good to have. I\u2019m trying to think of it positively,\u201d said Zacha. \u201cThe first couple of days it was hard to think positively at all about this but on the other hand for our season, it\u2019s going to be good for me to have some rest and be ready for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s will not be able to ease into the schedule, either. They play a huge game in the first game back next week against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are four points behind the B\u2019s for the last playoff spot and have a game in hand. It\u2019s tight, but Zacha and the rest of the B\u2019s will take it over last season, which forced a fire sale at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great that we\u2019re in the spot we want to be in and that we have something to fight for,\u201d said Zacha. \u201cI think everyone\u2019s excited to come back and give it their all, taking it five games at a time like we\u2019ve done till now and go from there. It\u2019s really exciting for us after last year, missing the playoffs, and hopefully we can keep getting better like we\u2019ve done so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zacha skated in a red non-contact jersey, but coach Marco Sturm was hopeful that he\u2019ll be ready to go when the Jackets come to town on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n
But Sturm couldn\u2019t help but feel bad for Zacha\u2019s misfortune that kept him from Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTiming is everything and unfortunately timing was not on his side,\u201d said Sturm. \u201cHe and Elias (Lindholm) were in exactly the same boat and we didn\u2019t know. Can they go, can they not? Elias ended up being fine (for Sweden). Pav just couldn\u2019t so it\u2019s very unfortunate. I know he was really bummed. You only have those opportunities once in a while, so we feel for him. But I think he\u2019s just happy that he\u2019s feeling better now and he\u2019ll be ready to go for the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If anyone needed another example that life is not fair, they should consider the case of Pavel Zacha.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[95,530,265,5,264,21,5147,40,4,7610,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-463056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-bruins","10":"tag-canadiens","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-montreal","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens","14":"tag-montrealcanadiens","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-pavel-zacha","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116095828895413691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}