How Bruins’ Brad Marchand Reacted To David Pastrnak’s Rare Fight

Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak both put their stamp on Wednesday night’s tilt at Amerant Bank Arena, but not in the way the Bruins stars typically do.

Marchand and Pastrnak each took their physicality and aggressiveness up a notch in Boston’s Game 2 loss to Florida. The Bruins captain received a 10-minute misconduct for going after Brandon Montour after the Panthers defenseman’s third-period shorthanded goal. Pastrnak, meanwhile, dropped the gloves for only the second fight of his nine-year NHL career.

Jim Montgomery was “proud” of the superstar goal-scorer for accepting a challenge from Matthew Tkachuk. Marchand unsurprisingly shared the same opinion as his head coach.

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“It’s great for him to step up,” Marchand told reporters after Boston’s 6-1 loss, per The Athletic. “He doesn’t fight often. He’s actually pretty tough. But you don’t want to see a guy like that get hurt. Hopefully he didn’t. When guys go down, they can blow out shoulders and hurt hands. Great job by him stepping up. That’s what he does.”

The latter stage of a lopsided contest was the right time and place for leaders from both teams to engage in fisticuffs. The only issue Montgomery had with the fight was the extra shot Tkachuk sent in after Pastrnak fell to the ice.

One has to imagine Montgomery wasn’t the only person in the Bruins dressing room who felt that way, so it will be interesting to see how Marchand and company respond Friday night at TD Garden.