- Zadorov tore his MCL in Game 3 of Boston’s first-round loss to Buffalo
- The defenseman still skated 19+ minutes a night through Games 4, 5 and 6
- Read below for what Zadorov said about the injury and what’s next
Nikita Zadorov was playing on one leg.
The Bruins defenseman revealed Friday night, after Boston’s 4-1 elimination loss to the Sabres, that he tore his MCL in Game 3 and never came out of the lineup.
“I tore my MCL in Game 3. Fully torn off the bone. I played on it a little bit,” Zadorov said in the locker room, per Conor Ryan of Boston.com.
He didn’t slow down after that. Zadorov logged 19:20 in Game 4, 23:11 in Game 5, and 21:52 in Game 6, all right around his regular-season average of 20:53.
Coach Marco Sturm wouldn’t say what he was dealing with at the time.
A fully torn MCL usually means surgery and a recovery window of around three months. That should leave Zadorov good to go for training camp, but his offseason work is going to take a hit.
He finished the series with an assist, 19 hits, seven blocked shots, and a series-leading 37 penalty minutes. The 31-year-old also led the entire NHL in PIMs during the regular season for the second straight year.
That physical edge is exactly what Boston signed him for. Zadorov fights. He hits. He sticks up for teammates the way he did with Jeremy Swayman earlier in the series.
Apparently he also plays through ligament tears like they’re a paper cut.
Zadorov has four years left on the six-year, $30 million deal he signed in 2024. The Bruins went home earlier than anyone in Boston wanted, but their big Russian gave them everything he had on a knee that wasn’t really there.
Hard not to respect that.
