BOSTON — Adam McQuaid does a lot of important things for the Bruins, but most of them don't get him noticed.
The big blueliner plays a steady, physical defensive game. He blocks shots, and he drops the gloves when the need arises. Those are the types of things coaches love, but other than his occasional bouts, they don't usually draw a lot of attention.
But McQuaid had a game Saturday night that couldn't be ignored. He blocked a game-high five shots, dished out three hits, battered Matt Bradley in a first-period bout, finished a plus-2 and even picked up a point with an assist on Boston's fist goal. For all that, he was named the third star of the Bruins' 3-2 win over Washington.
"It's pretty cool," said McQuaid of the third-star selection. "It doesn't happen too often, so that's exciting."
Despite serving a five-minute penalty for his fight, McQuaid played 14:53 in the game, his most ice time in the last seven games.
"I think he did a lot of good things tonight for us, and I commented on that even after the second period," said Bruins coach Claude Julien of McQuaid. "He seemed to be poised and do the right things and what I liked about him is that they tried to change the momentum after we scored the second goal by sending a guy out and then he held his own and didn't allow them to take the momentum because he did a great job in his fight and came back. I thought he had some good hits, some good patience with the puck, made some good, simple, but good passes, and I thought he played a solid game for us."
The fight came just four seconds after Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead, when the Caps' Bradley tried to spark his team by dropping the gloves with McQuaid, who had little choice but to oblige the Washington winger.
"To be honest, in that situation I didn't have much choice," said McQuaid. "I just saw him flying at me out of the corner of my eye. The puck was up the ice and I saw him skating at me, so I knew he was coming for me. He didn't ask or anything, so I just had to go."
Bradley might regret the decision to force the issue, as McQuaid ended the battle with some sharp right hands to make sure Washington didn't gain any momentum, and the Bruins did respond by extending the lead to 3-0 later in the period.
But Washington wasn't done, as they got on the board with a goal in the second, then outshot Boston 26-2 in the third. The shot totals would have been even more lopsided if the Bruins hadn't blocked 19 more attempts in front of Tim Thomas (39 saves), led by McQuaid's five.
One of the biggest came late in the second when McQuaid slid across the slot, giving up his body to smother a one-timer by Andrew Gordon.
"It's kind of a desperation play," said McQuaid. "They had a 2-on-2 rush and the guy I had was coming hard. I thought he was going to drive the net and they both pulled up right at the exact time and it gave them enough time to get the pass over. It was just more of a reaction, a desperation play trying to get over and cover up."
