Bruins Star David Pastrnak Gives Inside Details On Fight With Matthew Tkachuk

The fight between Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak and Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk remains a topic of conversation even though it occurred three weeks ago.

Pastrnak and Tkachuk dropped the gloves in the third period in a chippy Game 2 road loss for the Bruins in their second-round series with the Panthers.

Some details of what led to the fight trickled out in the aftermath of it and Pastrnak gave plenty of insight into the bout when he was on the “Spittin’ Chiclets’ podcast Tuesday.

“He was barking. I felt like if I wanted to fight him, it’s going to juice up them or I will give them something to bark about,” Pastrnak told hosts Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette and Brian “Rear Admiral” McGonagle. “I was like, ‘Let’s do it at home next game first shift.’ First he said yes and then he came back to the bench and was like, ‘No, we’re doing it right now.’ I was like, ‘It’s a (6-1) hockey game. Let’s do it first shift next game.’ We’re both players. That’s a trade you want to take, right? I take him, he take me out of the game for five. And he goes like, ‘No, let’s do it right now.’

“I was fine with going because I felt like it was going to help more me going (with) him than not going(with) him because then you would listen to it for the rest of the series. So, that’s how I felt.”

Pastrnak had a plan of attack after he clued in Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery on what was about to take place. But then Pastrnak began to second-guess things a little.

“I was going to go so aggressive,” Pastrnak said. “But then I remembered as I’m jumping over the boards, (Jake) DeBrusk goes, ‘Be careful, he’s going to come in hot. He’s going to come in hot.’ I’m about to have my second fight and you’re saying that to me. So, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to come fast at me.'”

Pastrnak, who led Czechia to an IIHF World title Sunday, certainly isn’t used to getting in scraps and quickly realized just how difficult it can be. After taking a swing, he fell to the ice and took some punches from Tkachuk.

“I was going to wait for the first punch and I was going dodge it, which I did,” Pastrnak said. “But man, Biz, I had no idea how hard it is to keep the balance on. It’s crazy. Once I dodged the first punch, I was off-balanced. It’s too bad.”

But even with plenty of time to digest what happened, Pastrnak doesn’t regret going at it with Tkachuk.

“Honestly, I’m happy I did it,” Pastrnak said. “I think it was a good juice up. They were just so much deeper, so much better than us, unfortunately.”