Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov played on torn MCL during first round
It’s far from unusual to see players play through injuries in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so as the Boston Bruins‘ season comes to an end, Nikita Zadorov unveiled a big one.
The Bruins defenseman announced in the wake of their 4-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of the first round (which in turn gave the Sabres a 4-2 series win and eliminated Boston) that he had been playing through a torn MCL.
Nikita Zadorov was playing on a torn MCL. Suffered it in Game 3.
At this point in time, how long Zadorov’s injury is expected to take to recover is not known.
According to Zadorov, he sustained the injury during Game 3, one which saw the Bruins lose 3-1 and fall 2-1 in the series. There wasn’t an apparent play which looked to cause the injury to Zadorov in the game, so it’s unclear what caused it.
There was one instance in Game 3 where Zadorov didn’t step on the ice for 7:35 of the first period, although that was likely due to two Bruins power plays. There was another stretch where he missed 4:29, but that was at the end of the second and the beginning of the third, so really it was two separate instances of two minutes.
However, the injury didn’t stop head coach Marco Sturm from playing Zadorov. In fact, Sturm actually used the defender more, as Zadorov only averaged 18:18 of ice time in the first two games before the injury, and saw it jump to 20:14 in the four games where Zadorov dealt with the injury.
The increase in ice time didn’t help Zadorov from a productive standpoint, as after getting an assist in Game 1, he went pointless in the remaining five games of the series. He also struggled defensively in the series, as he was on the ice for 6.55 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes, and also accumulated 37 penalty minutes in the six games.
This came after a season which saw Zadorov tie his career high in points with two goals and 20 assists for 22 points in 81 games.