BOSTON — The Bruins survived a scare earlier this month when Adam McQuaid was sent crashing into the boards on a dirty hit from Philadelphia's Jody Shelley.
McQuaid was out for the rest of the night, but didn't miss any further games as he avoided serious injury.
Fellow defenseman Steven Kampfer appears to have been even luckier. He crashed headfirst into the same boards midway through the second period of Monday's game with Anaheim after a collision with Ducks forward Teemu Selanne.
Kampfer stayed down for several minutes as the Bruins training staff checked him out, but returned to the game within a few minutes and played the rest of the night.
"I was going in to hit him and kind of let up at the last second, not thinking he was going to lean into me," said Kampfer. "It was a good play by him. I just need to be ready for it."
While Shelley received a five-minute major for boarding and was suspended for two games, Selanne's hit drew just a two-minute minor for boarding and even Kampfer didn't believe Selanne intended to hurt him.
"He just asked if I was OK," said Kampfer of Selanne's reaction after the play. "He's a classy player. He said it looked dirty, but in all respects, it was a good play by him. I just let up going into the hit and that's my fault, so it's something I can't do from now on."
Kampfer shook off the hit and was back on the ice taking a regular shift before the second period was over.
"It was one of those things where I just wanted to keep moving," said Kampfer. "I didn't want to stop. I didn't want to have anything stiffen up, so it was more my call of wanting to go back on. The trainer said, 'If you feel fine, go back out there,' so I just wanted to make sure that I could move everything, which was fine, so I just hopped back on the ice and started going."
Kampfer isn't completely out of the woods though, as he will have to see how he feels on Tuesday.
"I'm just sore. We'll see how I feel tomorrow," said Kampfer. "We're going to look at it and we'll see how it feels tomorrow and more forward from there."
