With six minutes left in the opening frame, Adam McQuaid went back to retrieve a puck behind the Boston net and was hit hard into the boards by Washington forward Jason Chimera. McQuaid turned just before contact and was driven face first into the boards, opening a cut above his eye and ending his night.
"He suffered a cut over the eyebrow and he wasn't feeling quite right," Bruins coach Claude Julien said.
"The doctors didn't want to take a chance of sending him back. We'll probably learn more the following day, find out a little bit more about it. But for the obvious reasons that the medical staff deals with with those kinds of things, the minute you don't feel right, they pull you out. Hopefully we'll get good news tomorrow, but we'll find out later."
Chimera was given a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct. Julien agreed with the call, but didn't believe Chimera had intended to hurt McQuaid.
"When it happens to you, you also have to be honest about it," Julien said. "[Chimera] came off the bench and he was going hard, and maybe it was a little reckless, but there's no doubt in my mind that it wasn't intentional. McQuaid turned at the last second and put himself in a vulnerable position. But I still agree with the referee's call. It was a reckless hit and it deserved five [minutes] when you look at the replay. [The referees] had to make that decision. It was a tough one, but it certainly wasn't an intent to injure by the player in my mind."
The Bruins players agreed with that assessment.
"It's a tough play because it's hard for that forward to stop when he's coming that fast," defenseman Joe Corvo said. "Quaider kind of turned a little bit. The guy could have let up a little bit, but it just happens fast. I think that's why he was so upset that he got thrown out. I don't think he's a dirty player, I think just with his speed it was hard to stop."
The Bruins have been on both sides of controversial hits in recent seasons, and it was refreshing to hear a coach not politicking for a suspension after one of his players was subjected to a questionable play.
"That's why I keep saying and you've heard me before, I really, really encourage our players to be careful," Julien said. "With the speed of the game today to make sure you don't turn your back to the play as much because those kinds of things happen. You worry about the security of the players and you worry about the safety of the game. I'm one of those guys that will look at both sides of it and not just preach from my side of it."
Despite the loss of McQuaid and the absence of Seidenberg, the Bruins still turned in a stingy defensive effort. They allowed just 23 shots on the night, including only two in the first period and seven in the second. Captain Zdeno Chara helped pick up the slack by playing a game-high 29:30.
"That's happened a couple of times where we've had to run our back end short," Julien said. "The guys responded well. We did a pretty good job again when you look at the number of shots we gave up tonight. We're still defensively playing decent hockey and I think that helped us stay in the game for a while. Again, our D deserve a lot of credit. Zee is getting a lot of ice time and handling that well also."
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