Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy Return to Practice For Boston Bruins

BRIGHTON, Mass. – The Boston Bruins are closer to getting two major reinforcements back in their lineup. Center Pavel Zacha and defenseman Charlie McAvoy each participated in Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena in regular jerseys.

Both players are working back from upper-body injuries, with McAvoy missing the past four games, and Zacha the last three.

“I had a good couple practices and first one with the team today, and I felt really good,” Zacha said. “So I’m excited to be on the ice with everyone now, and play tomorrow.”

While Zacha all but confirmed he will return for Tuesday’s home matchup against the Minnesota Wild, McAvoy did not appear as sure, but he expects to be back sooner than later.

“Day-to-day,” McAvoy said regarding his status. “We’ll see how it is in the morning.”

The Bruins went 1-0-2 with McAvoy and Zacha both missing, relying on Morgan Geekie to play a larger role down the middle as well as Ian Mitchell and Parker Wotherspoon on the back end.

On Monday, Zacha went back to centering the top line between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, while McAvoy reunited with Matt Grzelcyk on the first defensive pair.

Zacha (19 points) and McAvoy (17) are the fifth- and sixth-highest scoring players on the team, respectively. In terms of points per game, McAvoy (0.81) is third behind Pastrnak (1.41) and Marchand (0.90), and Zacha is fourth (0.73). In this stretch of games where the offense has struggled to produce goals, especially at 5-on-5, the returns of both players will be important.

“I think the team worked really hard,” Zacha said. “Having four points out of those games is a good step there. I think those are really hard teams, and even watching the [New York] Rangers, we’re winning until the end and they score two goals there and in overtime, but I think the effort was there from the team, and we use that to keep building our game.”