VANCOUVER — There was plenty of nastiness in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final, but no incident revealed the real level of disdain the Bruins and Canucks have quickly built for each other than the scene that followed the final whistle of the opening period of Game 1 on Wednesday.
As the period came to a close, a scrum developed around the Bruins net. While several other pairings of players became entangled, the usually mild-mannered Patrice Bergeron found himself tied up with Canucks agitator Alexandre Burrows.
It was a battle that raged on and on, with face-washes, shoves and a few gloved punches. There also appeared to have been one move that went beyond the acceptable behavior of even a hockey confrontation. After finally being separated, Bergeron appeared to indicate on the ice that Burrows had bitten his hand, and after Boston's 1-0 loss, the Bruins center confirmed that is what happened.
"Oh yeah," Bergeron said when asked if Burrows bit him.
According to Bergeron, Burrows didn't exactly deny the allegation, but did attempt to justify it.
"He said that I put my finger in his mouth," Bergeron said. "'What else do you want me to do?' That's what he said."
And the referee on the ice, who gave Burrows four minutes for roughing to just two for Bergeron, did not assess anything extra for the alleged bite.
"He said he didn't see it," Bergeron said of the referee.
Bruins coach Claude Julien also claimed he did not see the bite, but certainly believed Bergeron's account and was not happy with the incident.
"I haven't seen it, to be honest with you," Julien said. "I haven't had time to look at that stuff right now. I'm going by what Patrice told me. Obviously there was something that happened. I guess I'll save my comments for after I see it. But if that's the case, it's a classless move. It's not something players should be doing at this level anyway."
Bergeron tried to downplay the incident a bit after the game, but did express some hope that the league would further punish Burrows.
"I don't want to start complaining about that," Bergeron said. "I'm sure the league is going to do the job. I've got to concentrate on my game here. I can't really worry about that stuff. Before we've seen some suspensions from guys [that bite players]. I think [Jarkko] Ruutu did that and he got suspended, so we'll see."
When asked if he would ever stoop to such tactics as biting an opponent in a scrum, Bergeron again took the high road.
"I wouldn't do that, but I don't want to start a war of words here," Bergeron said. "I just want to concentrate on my game."
