Patrice Bergeron played the role of the enforcer for the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
The Bruins welcomed the rival Montreal Canadiens to TD Garden for a showdown and things got chippy throughout Boston’s 5-1 win. Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta crunched Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk into the boards and Bergeron immediately responded.
The Bruins captain defended Grzelcyk and tossed Pezzetta down to the ice and after the game Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy gushed about Bergeron’s rebuttal and impact on the squad.
“Trust me, when these hits happen if Bergy’s not on the ice he points it out on the bench right away. ‘We finish every check.’ He doesn’t get up and say ‘we need to kill this guy,’ we just have to finish every check,” Cassidy said via team-provided audio. “We’ve got to respond and push back, whatever words you want to use and let them know we’re not going to take that whether it’s in our building or your building. We’re missing a bit of size obviously with (Trent Frederic) and (Nick Foligno) going out on the last trip but other guys have to step up. When it’s your turn, it’s your turn and be physical.
“We thought the hit was late on Johnny Moore first of all and probably unnecessary, the refs didn’t see it that way. Who knows how it will look and Grz kind of got sandwiched there. I can’t tell if it was high or not but whatever the case is, it’s the same player initiating contact in vulnerable spots. So we’re going to push back and we did. Good for our guys. Let them know we’re not going to put up with that. Bergy’s the ring leader there.”
You can check out a clip of the play in question here, courtesy of Boston Sports Journal’s Conor Ryan.
It’s definitely not a good idea to mess with Bergeron.
