It didn't take long on Tuesday afternoon for the Boston Bruins to get an injury scare. Defenseman Nikita Zadorov was injured by Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson behind the Bruins net when Wilson inadvertently cut Zadorov with his skate. It didn't take long for the 6-foot-6 blueliner to realize something was wrong.
“I felt a cut right away, and I looked there, and I see it’s pretty deep,” said Zadorov. “I could see it between my skate and my shinpad, and then I just sprinted to the bench. And when I figured I could put the weight on my ankle, I felt like I was fine. So, it ended up it was just the skin. I got lucky there pretty much because there’s a lot of areas where it could be worse for sure.”
Zadorov quickly exited and that left the Bruins with just five defensemen for nearly the entire first period before the first-year Bruin returned for the final shift of the period. For the game, the off-season free agent played almost 14 minutes after getting his cut fixed in Boston's 3-1 loss.
Bruins avoid another injury on defense against Capitals
Say what you will about the way Zadorov has played up until now in his first season with the Black and Gold, but if they had lost him for any amount of time, it would have been a tough blow. They have already been without Hampus Lindholm since November when he suffered an injury and then two nights later, they avoided another injury with Brandon Carlo.
The Bruins will continue their three-game road trip against the New York Rangers on Thursday night and then finish it off against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, but right now without Lindholm on the left side on defense, Boston could not afford another injury that would cause Zadorov to miss a significate amount of time.