BOSTON — Regardless of getting walloped on the scoreboard by the Florida Panthers, David Pastrnak and the Boston Bruins weren’t happening with no combat on Wednesday night time. Fairly actually.
It is no shock that tempers have been excessive late in Recreation 2 on Wednesday, with the Panthers taking a 6-1 lead with about eight minutes left within the recreation. There had already been a handful of scrums and skirmishes within the interval, and it felt like extra have been brewing.
What was shocking was Boston’s half of the fisticuffs that broke out with simply over seven minutes to play. For simply the second time in his profession, David Pastrnak threw down his gloves and had himself a dance. His dance associate — Florida star/instigator extraordinaire Matthew Tkachuk — isn’t any stranger to combating, and it confirmed within the temporary tussle between the 2 star gamers.
Pastrnak clearly did not respect the additional punches that Tkachuk threw whereas he was on the ice, and threw of few of his personal after the refs had Tkachuk pinned down. Each gamers got combating penalties and recreation misconducts, and joined the slew of gamers on either side that have been already given an early exit from the sport.
This was a premeditated combat, as Pastrnak was noticed on the Boston bench letting head coach Jim Montgomery know he was going to throw down with Tkachuk. Whereas most head coaches in all probability don’t need their finest scorer to begin throwing round fists — or extra importantly, have fists thrown at them — Montgomery applauded Pastrnak after the loss.
“I am actually pleased with Pasta,” mentioned Montgomery. “There’s so many guys on the market pushing after the whistle when the linesmen are there. Pasta and Tkachuk, they simply went on the market and fought. That is what you want. You want your hockey gamers to be rivals.”
Florida head coach Paul Maurice agreed with Montgomery.
“I believed it was superior,” mentioned Maurice.
Pastrnak admitted after that he is not a fighter, but additionally mentioned he is not afraid of Tkachuk, who has over two dozen fights underneath his belt over his NHL profession.
“I can take a punch,” Pasta mentioned. “And I would do something for these guys right here.”
Punches have been flying in every single place within the third interval, as the 2 groups racked up 136 penalty minutes over the ultimate 10 minutes of the competition. It appeared like one thing was breaking out with each stoppage in play, and 6 gamers from all sides have been finally given early journeys to the dressing room: Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, Justin Brazeau, Trent Frederic, and Pat Maroon of Boston, and Tkachuk, Nick Cousins, Eetu Loustarinen, Dmitry Kulikov, Niko Mikkola, and Sam Reinhart on the Florida aspect.
An enormous fracas preceded the Pastrnak-Tkachuk bout, after Brandon Montour scored Florida’s six aim of the night time and determined to actually have a good time it in entrance of Brad Marchand. The B’s captain did not prefer it, and all types of tomfoolery adopted on the ice. It resulted in 4 of the 12 misconducts handed out on the night.
Sadly for the Bruins, that was the one actual juice they’d in Recreation 2, and now they’re going to head again to Boston with the collection tied 1-1. However they need to have loads of juice when issues shift to the TD Backyard on Friday night time, because of Pastrnak’s uncharacteristic tussle with Tkachuk.
Taking up Tkachuk wasn’t about successful a combat for Pastrnak. It was about stepping up and standing up for his teammates, who have been being taunted and swung at by Panthers all night time. It was about sending a message that the Bruins weren’t going to let the Panthers push them round anymore.
These two groups clearly don’t like one another, going again to final postseason, when Florida ended Boston’s historic season within the first spherical. Add in Wednesday night time’s extracurricular actions on either side, and it ought to arrange an entertaining Recreation 3 in Boston on Friday night time.