Bruins lose Pavel Zacha to upper-body injury in win over Coyotes

Bruins

“He’s a tough guy to replace, but we can do it throughout the lineup.”

Pavel Zacha missed the final two periods of Saturday’s win over the Coyotes. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The Bruins’ center depth took a hit Saturday afternoon.

Boston’s top center Pavel Zacha played just 6:42 of ice time against the Coyotes on Saturday, and the 26-year-old forward was ruled out after the first period of play due to an upper-body injury. .

Following Boston’s eventual 5-3 victory at TD Garden, Jim Montgomery had no definitive timeline on how long the top-six forward is expected to be out.

“I’ll have more on Monday,” Montgomery noted. “I just know it’s the upper part of the body. “I haven’t seen him or spoken to the doctors yet.”

It’s unclear how Zacha was injured against Arizona, with the forward anchoring a top line between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak for the first 20 minutes of regulation on Saturday.

Zacha has made the most of his extra reps following the offseason retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, scoring eight goals and 19 points in 26 games.

With Zacha ruled out for most of Saturday’s morning matchup, Charlie Coyle did double duty at times with Boston’s top-six unit, finishing with a goal in 20:17 of ice time and winning 17 of his 22 matchups.

Morgan Geekie earned a promotion from the fourth line to a middle-six role, finishing with 17:31 of ice time and recording a primary assist on David Pastrnak’s second goal of the afternoon in the third period.

Trent Frederic (15:13 TOI) also got some looks up the middle in the third period, while Matt Poitras was kept off the ice in the third period by Montgomery. Poitras finished with just 8:26 of ice time in the win.

“Everyone takes a little more responsibility and you have to be on your guard and concentrate more because the lines are going to change,” Coyle said of Boston’s small group of centers. “You really don’t know who will go with you.

“So you have to make sure they call your name or if you go, there will be a lot of talking on the bench, a lot of talking on the ice. Everyone takes a little more responsibility when someone goes down, especially someone of the caliber like Pavel Zacha. He’s a tough guy to replace, but we can do it throughout the lineup and I’d say we did a pretty good job for the most part.”

The Bruins have been hit by the injury bug over the past few days.

Boston announced Thursday morning that defenseman Derek Forbort would be placed on long-term injured reserve due to a nagging lower-body injury, prompting the team to recall Mason Lohrei from Providence. Forbort will be eligible to return from LTIR on December 31 for Boston’s road game against the Detroit Red Wings.

The Bruins also played Saturday without Charlie McAvoy, who was ruled out due to an upper-body injury he suffered during Thursday’s loss to the Sabres.

However, Montgomery offered some good news Saturday morning, noting that McAvoy has made “significant improvement.” McAvoy will have plenty of time to rest before Boston’s next game, with the Bruins set to play the Devils on the road Wednesday night.