By: Chad Jones I Follow me on Twitter/X @ShutUpChadJones
On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, the Boston Bruins exploded for six goals against the New York Islanders to come away with a 6-3 win and improve to 11-10-3. Boston managed to light the lamp five times against Ilya Sorokin before Nikita Zadorov put the game on ice with an empty net tuck, his first as a Bruin after a heads-up billiards pass off of the boards from Elias Lindholm. Brad Marchand started the scoring early for Boston, snapping home a tally directly off a face-off just under a minute after puck drop. The Bruins captain added another first-period score for good measure.
However, the biggest takeaway from Boston’s successful performance against New York was Pavel Zacha’s slick play-making and finishes. It has been well-documented that Zacha has been off to a slow offensive start through Boston’s first 23 games. The center/forward had only produced three goals and four assists coming into Wednesday’s contest. While he has played with different linemates, that number is considerably underwhelming, as he has skated with David Pastrnak most of the time.
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Boston’s head coach, Joe Sacco, has moved Zacha back to his more natural center position, and the results paid dividends against the Islanders. Number 18 first got his name on the score sheet halfway through the second period. With the score knotted up at two aside, Pastrnak and Zacha combined forces to keep the puck alive along the wall in Boston’s offensive zone. Zacha then laid a beautiful pass to Morgan Geekie, who buried the chance into the wide-open net. Sorokin was so concerned with Zacha that he could not recover on the back-door attempt.
In the third, Zacha turned from a playmaker to a goal-scorer. After Marchand and Pastrnak muscled the puck to the top of the zone, Andrew Peeke fired an attempt towards Sorokin. Zacha found the rubber and tipped home the eventual game-winning goal.
“The guys did a great job at getting in on the forecheck quick,” Boston’s captain said to the media postgame. “Pasta did a great job of coming off the bench and supporting, winning that battle. Things we’ve been working on in practice: get up top, and being shot-ready, and get it to the net. So, Peeker did a great job getting the puck off quick, and Pav went to the right area and got rewarded for it. So, great execution on, like I said, the details and the structure that we want to play in.”
Zacha was not done accumulating points, as he gave Boston some third-period insurance. With under seven minutes remaining in the final frame, he buried a backhanded attempt on a net drive following a gorgeous feed from Pastrnak.
“I just think the mindset is keep sticking with the process that we have and keep creating,” Zacha told the media postgame. “We had a little bit more net front presence today, I think, and that’s when it went in. We just have to keep doing that more.”
Zacha must continue to stuff the stat sheet regularly. That will take some pressure off 88’s shoulders and allow the Bruins to keep Marchand and Lindholm together. Boston cannot afford to go to the well of Marchand-Lindholm-Pastrnak too often, as the rest of the lines would not have enough offensive punch.
Zacha has to keep generating chances and putting up points with Pastrnak so the Bruins can consistently produce offensively. Not only will that help lighten the load for the Bruins’ star winger, but it will also allow Sacco to construct more balanced lines.
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