Why Paul Maurice Loved David Pastrnak-Matthew Tkachuk Fight

The Panthers overwhelmed the Bruins on Wednesday night, but a heavyweight bout stole the show in the third period.

Florida evened up the best-of-seven series after it beat Boston, 6-1, at Amerant Bank Arena. The B’s literally fought back, but will have to wait until Game 3 on Friday to try to retake the series lead.

Brad Marchand went after Brandon Montour after the defenseman scored a short-handed goal, and a brawl ensued. The eye-popping fight, though, was between Matthew Tkachuk and David Pastrnak, whose last recorded fight was on March 29, 2018.

Jim Montgomery was “proud” of Pastrnak, who admitted he wasn’t “afraid” of the Panthers star. However, the Bruins head coach took issue with Tkachuk’s extracurriculars. Paul Maurice had a different view of the fight.

“You’re going to see that on the highlights over and over and over again,” Maurice told reporters, per The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa. “I think it’s a good thing. You have two elite offensive players. Chucky’s a 100-point guy all day long. Pastrnak’s just this brilliant player. It’s the playoffs. They each have their team. They got their brothers in their room. It’s a little spicy out there. I think it’s awesome. When it was over, they both looked like they were fine. Sorry for whoever’s offended by that concept. I don’t care. I thought it was awesome. Like, good on both of them.”

The frenzy resulted in six Bruins players being sent to the dressing room for 10-minute misconducts. Boston will hope for a response on the scoreboard in Game 3.