BOSTON — Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said he wanted his club to get back to playing hockey and to be more disciplined when Boston hosted the Florida Panthers on Monday afternoon.
Montgomery’s message clearly missed the mark because the Bruins took five penalties in the first period against their Atlantic Division rival.
Ex-Bruin A.J. Greer took a run at David Pastrnak along the wall, which resulted in the Boston star coming up with blood dripping from his lip. Pastrnak’s linemate Pavel Zacha took exception to the hit and dropped the gloves with Greer. It was just the second fight of Zacha’s career. The first time he dropped the gloves was when he fought now-teammate Nikita Zadorov when Zacha played for the New Jersey Devils and Zodorov sported an Avalanche jersey. Zacha lost both bouts.
While the pair were in the penalty box for fighting, Charlie McAvoy shelled out a couple of cross-checks to Carter Verhaeghe. Unfortunately for the Bruins, Sam Reinhart potted his second goal of the season just six seconds into the man advantage.
Things continued to get chippy when Pastrnak was called for interference against Reinhart. Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt took exception to the hit and took a run at Pastrnak, but before Schmidt could reach his target, Brad Marchand literally jumped over Pastrnak to drop the gloves with Schmidt.
This marked the second straight Bruins-Panthers bout with fisticuffs. Greer fought Boston newcomer Mark Kastelic at American Bank Arena last Tuesday.
