Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic was fined $5,000 by the NHL for spearing Detroit Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser at the end of the second period of Detroit’s 1-0 Game 1 victory.
Lucic was skating behind DeKeyser when the incident occured. He speared him in the groin as the period was coming to a close, but there was no penalty. ESPN Boston reported that Lucic was apologetic after the Bruins’ practice Saturday.
“Obviously, it was kind of the heat-of-the-moment thing when you’re not thinking when you do something like that,” Lucic said. “I’ve been in the league for seven years now, and I think I’ve only done that three times. I don’t know why I did it, but it was the heat-of-the-moment things that unfortunately I did. I believe in playing within the rules and, for me, I definitely won’t be heading down that road again.”
Lucic also said that he wasn’t “going to make it a habit.”
Bruins coach Claude Julien said he did not see the spearing occur.
“Our video doesn’t show it, so I can’t comment on it,” Julien said. “I think it was seen on another station and I haven’t looked at it yet, so I can’t say much about it. But obviously if it’s serious enough to get a call then hopefully he has to adjust and rectify that, so I’ve heard of it but haven’t seen it.”
DeKeyser on the other hand was not affected much by the incident.
“I didn’t really know what happened,” DeKeyser said. “I was just skating back to the bench, and to be honest right after the play I didn’t know who did it. I’m fine. It’s just happens sometimes during the game, so you just deal with it.”
Check out Lucic’s shot on DeKeyser in the video below.
