WASHINGTON — Nikita Zadorov, all 6 feet 6 inches and 248 pounds of him, rarely ends up on the wrong side of contact. But it happened Tuesday afternoon, 19 seconds into the big blueliner’s first shift, in his collision with Tom Wilson, all 6-4 and 220 pounds of the Capitals winger.
“His skate came up and caught me by accident on the [right] ankle,” saifd Zadorov, closing in on the midpoint of his first season with the Bruins. “It’s fine.”
The injury sent Zadorov to the dressing room for virtually the remainder of the first period. His ankle stitched and wrapped, Zadorov did return to play until the period’s final shift and is expected to suit up for Thursday’s game at Madison Square Garden vs. the Rangers.
“I felt the cut right away,” said Zadorov, whose absence had the Bruins patching and filling on the back end with only five defensemen in a 3-1 loss. “I looked and I could see [the cut] is pretty deep, between my skate and my shinpad — then I just sprinted to the bench.”
Zadorov was relieved when first testing the ankle that it was able to support his weight without any issue. He figured he would be fine.
“I knew it was just skin, so …,” mused the towering blueliner. “... Yeah … I got lucky … a lot of areas it could be worse, for sure.”
Power play is powerless
The Bruins power play posted yet another 0 for 2 and, worse, showed little sign of causing the opposition so much as a wrinkled brow. The man-advantage lacks confidence, and often it is pluck and strut, the belief that a team can score when man up, that is the biggest factor in making it work.
Charlie McAvoy, point man on one of the PP units, agreed that it looks like the power play is overthinking it and not playing on instinct.
“ At the beginning of the year, we had a couple of games where it felt we had a lot of good chances and a lot of good looks … it was clicking but we weren’t scoring,” he said.
Enter frustration.
“You know, it just continued,” he added. “Honestly, it’s been a source of frustration for the entire year — for a lot of guys. It’s kind of been a roller coaster, not letting it affect the five-on-five play. But here’s where we are now and we’ve got to be professionals. We need to make sure we are holding ourselves to the highest standard. All we need is one game, two games where we get looks and now you are just playing with confidence — a little of it goes a long way.”
Swayman streak over
Jeremy Swayman sustained his first regulation loss in six games after going 4-0-1 and allowing only eight goals in those five games and stopping 91.8 percent of shots. He gave up two here on 26 shots, his record falling to 13-11-3 … Oliver Wahlstrom (F) and Jordan Oesterle (D) were the Black-and-Gold lineup scratches, with Johnny Beecher moving back into the order after Fabian Lysell’s one-game look-see over the weekend. It’s possible the Bruins popped Lysell into the lineup as a showcase play, allowing other NHL teams to take a look at him in case they are considering making a trade with the Bruins. Meanwhile, Beecher did little in his return in terms of catching anyone’s eye. He logged 9:44 and landed but one shot on net, working pivot on a fourth line with Mark Kastelic and Marc McLaughlin … One PP unit was backed by Mason Lohrei at point, with forwards Morgan Geekie, Justin Brazeau, Pavel Zacha, and David Pastrnak (five shots on net for the afternoon). The other, with McAvoy at point, included forwards Trent Frederic, Elias Lindholm, Brad Marchand, and Charlie Coyle. Both units were equally fuhgeddaboudit … Pastrnak, 13-24—37, is on pace for 27 goals … Bruins backliners have gone nearly a month without putting a puck in the net. The last blueliner to score: Zadorov on Dec. 3, in a 3-2 OT win over the Red Wings. Collectively, they’ve fired blanks for 12 consecutive games. Similar to the power play, they present the opposition with little scoring threat, which in turn allows defenses to ratchet down harder on Bruins forwards … When the day began, the Bruins owned the tightest differential in the league (a mere 13-second deficit) when comparing lead time vs. time chasing a lead. They led here for 10:44 of the first, but the Capitals finished with a 42:49 gross advantage. Through 39 games, the Bruins have led for 754:03 and trailed for 786:21. How that might change if the power play is ever removed from the cryogenics lab?
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.