Bruins notes: Marco Sturm has good news on missing forwards ahead of playoffs

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Bruins notes: Marco Sturm has good news on missing forwards ahead of playoffs

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Wed, Apr 15, 2026 ·

2 min read

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BOSTON — Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt will both be back in the Bruins lineup for the playoffs.

Mittelstadt was the only regular not in the Boston lineup for Tuesday’s 4-0 season-finale win over the Devils and Zacha left after the first period.

The Bruins announced that Zacha had left to attend to a family matter and coach Marco Sturm said Mittelstadt’s absence wasn’t health related either.

“Zacha left and Casey was not available today for personal reasons, but in a good way,” Sturm said. “No injuries. Both will be available Game 1.”

STILL NO POWER PLAYS— One of the curiosities about the start of James Hagens’ career was whether Sturm would try him on the power play. That question remains unanswered as the Bruins haven’t had a power play in the last two games.

MILESTONES— David Pastrnak’s assist in the first minute of the game gave him 100 points for the fourth straight season. But he finished the regular season stuck on 29 goals. Not including the COVID-shortened 20-21 season, he had at least 30 goals every year since 2016-17.

Morgan Geekie scored again but finished a goal short of 40.

ZADOROV BACK-TO-BACK— Nikita Zadorov was assessed with a tripping penalty in the third period of Thursday’s game giving him a league-leading 152 penalty minutes this season. Unless Buffalo’s Logan Stanley , who is third with 128 PIMs, goes on a rampage in the Sabres’ final game on Wednesday, Zadorov will be the first Bruin to lead the league in back-to-back years since Eddie Shore. He’s one penalty short of a milestone with 998 penalty minutes in his career.

Bruins teammate Mark Kastelic is second in the NHL with 140, but his season is over.

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