Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov Delivers Timely Snarl In Pummeling Stars Forward

Leaning toward the franchise’s historical identity, the Boston Bruins strengthened their blue line during the offseason by signing 6-foot-6, 248-pound defenseman Nikita Zadorov.

Zadorov brought a snarl to the Bruins’ matchup against the Stars when he dropped the gloves with Jamie Benn during Dallas’ 7-2 shellacking of Boston on Thursday night.

Benn hit Brandon Carlo from behind in the Bruins’ defensive zone. Zadorov immediately jumped to his teammate’s defense, pummeling the Stars’ captain as Carlo was crumpled on the ice on all fours while the trainers attended to him. It was just a natural reaction for Zadorov.

“While my teammate’s laying on the ground, I think that’s a good response,” Zadorov told reporters in Dallas.

Zadorov finished the game in the Bruins’ locker room after being called for slashing and misconduct with 2:31 remaining in regulation. He was a minus-2 with two hits across 19:24 minutes of ice time.

The Bruins fell to the Stars after a thrilling come-from-behind win against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night. Boston has had a rough time stringing together multiple wins this season.

“We’ve taken a step forward and taken a step backward,” Zadorov said. “It’s hard to win in this league. There’s good teams; they’re going to put you on your heels, you’ve got to deal with pressure.”

Zadorov added: “I mean, we’re 4-2-1 in the last seven, right? We were 4-1-1 in the last six coming into this game. We had a good comeback in St. Louis. I thought we did a lot of good stuff in St. Louis. Today, we were just, we weren’t there. Our effort wasn’t there. Hard to play against, wasn’t there. So that cost us the game.”

The Bruins will look to bounce back and get back into the win column when they host the Blues in a matinee matchup on Saturday. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.