Pavel Zacha and the Boston Bruins are fighting tooth and nail for a spot within the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Boston is currently tied on points with the Detroit Red Wings for the highest Wild Card spot, though they own the tiebreaker. As fate would have it, the 2 Atlantic Division rivals are about to battle on Saturday to see who can pull ahead for that top Wild Card spot.
One in every of the explanations Boston has played so well this yr is Zacha. The previous sixth-overall pick has emerged as a legitimate top-six forward for the Bruins over the previous few years. This season, he has a profession high 23 goals while also being eight points off his previous profession high point total with 13 games remaining.
All this said, there’s one accolade missing from Zacha’s profession yr. The Czechian forward was not picked to represent his country on the 2026 Winter Olympics. Before facing the Red Wings, he spoke about how he used this snub to affect his mentality on the NHL level.
“It was a bit of depressing in the beginning, but then got me motivated,” he said, via NHL.com. “Just what I can control is, at the top of the season, it looks like I may give it my all. … The Olympics is one in all the things I used to be looking forward to most. So missing that, it was just form of a mindset like, OK, there’s things I can control in life.”
Zacha has played extremely well within the month of March. He has scored eight goals and 13 points for the Bruins, helping them keep pace within the Eastern Conference postseason race. It is going to actually be interesting to see if he can proceed this run of form because the playoff race heats up across the league.