Pavel Zacha has stepped up when it mattered for Bruins

The race for the last couple of playoff spots in the Eastern Conference is still tight, but as we approach April, certain teams have seperated themselves from what had been an amorphous cluster of playoff hopefuls. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, one of those teams is the Boston Bruins, who have won five of their last six games and now sit six points above the postseason cutline in the East.

Coming into the season, the Bruins were seen by many as a team that lacked the requisite offensive firepower beyond star winger David Pastrnak to be a serious threat. Boston has surpassed expectations, though, thanks to a career year from forward Morgan Geekie, and lately, torrid scoring from center Pavel Zacha. The Czech national has led the charge for the Bruins as they’ve put themselves in a more comfortable playoff position.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Zacha and the Bruins catching fire of late.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Boston Bruins. The comeback ‘B’s. They were trailing late in their game against Columbus on the weekend, and then Pavel Zacha with 11.9 seconds to go finds the back of the net. He finished his weekend with four goals. He has nine goals in his last 10 games. He’s been a massive boost for a Bruins team that has suddenly won three in a row, and they’ve pushed their playoff chances up to 90% on MoneyPuck. Zacha’s been red hot, the Bruins are red hot. They’ve grabbed hold of that top wild card spot. They’re six points clear now of the Ottawa, Detroit, Philly region. Being six points clear of that group with under 10 games to go, .500 hockey is probably easily getting you in now if you’re the Bruins. A massive week for them when comes to potentially cementing themselves as a playoff team.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…