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Nikita Zadorov meets moment for underdog Bruins with thumping of Sam Bennett
"We're not going to quit, we're going to battle right to the end. That's the Bruins, right? That's what we want to be."
COMMENTARY
Sam Bennett has doled out plenty of pain against the Bruins over the last few years.
Be it sucker-punching (now teammate Brad Marchand) and knocking him out multiple games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs or tormenting Boston en route to a stunning first-round defeat in their record-setting 2022-23 campaign, the pesky forward has a knack for poking the bear at critical times.
But on Tuesday night at a raucous TD Garden, Nikita Zadorov and the Bruins finally decided to punch back. Multiple times.
In the closing seconds of Boston’s 3-2 comeback win over the Panthers, a netfront fracas ended with Bennett delivering a cross-check to the 6-foot-6 Bruins defenseman.
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After another heated night where the Bruins and Panthers traded scraps and exchanged pleasantries after the whistle, Zadorov clearly had enough of Bennett — eventually dropping the gloves and squaring up with the 6-foot-1 center.
Zadorov landed several heavy right hooks in the scrap, dropping Bennett to the ice as the crowd roared in approval of seeing one of the team’s top antagonists take some punishment.
Bennett landed his first jabs of the bout after Zadorov was tangled up with the refs near Jeremy Swayman’s net — but the damage was done, and the message sent by a Bruins team ready to embrace an underdog role following Friday’s roster reshuffle.
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“Yeah, I haven’t been that fired up in a long time. That was unbelievable,” Mason Lohrei said of Zadorov, who promptly fired up the TD Garden crowd before making his way down the tunnel to close out Boston’s win
Zadorov’s punch out of Bennett was the fitting stamp on yet another encouraging response by the Bruins since the trade deadline.
Expectations have not been high for the Bruins as of late — especially after Boston seemingly waved the proverbial white flag last week by trading away captain Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic, and Justin Brazeau.
While those moves secured a haul of picks and prospects for Boston — along with positioning the Bruins for a necessary retool in the years ahead — it seemingly snuffed out any hope of a reworked Bruins depth chart punching a ticket to the playoffs for the ninth year in a row.
But the Bruins have not rolled over since that sell-off — with a Bruins roster featuring a mix of new faces, unproven youngsters, and AHL regulars responding with a pair of regulation wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
“It’s the main message is that we’re battling for each other in this room,” Swayman (26 saves) said of Boston’s underdog mentality at this stage of the season. “That’s all we care about the guys in this room, and just couldn’t be more proud of the guys the way that their effort is, the way that we’re competing as a team and and just being cohesive, and we’re obviously getting results, so that’s something we can build on. And it’s a really good feeling to have.”
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In a season where the Bruins have routinely let points slip away via lapses in late-game execution or a plodding offense, Tuesday’s showdown with Florida stood as a welcome sight.
Boston eliminated a 2-0 deficit in the third period against a stingy Panthers defense — with a mix of youngsters, familiar faces, and newcomers all pulling on the rope in Boston’s comeback win.
David Pastrnak put Boston on the board at 8:56 in the third, beating Sergei Bobrovsky following a slick feed from Casey Mittelstadt (two points in two games) on the power play.
Mason Lohrei — who has continued to take step forward under heavier minutes following Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm’s injuries — knotted the game up at 13:51 following a furious forechecking shift from Jakub Lauko, Elias Lindholm, and Marat Khusnutdinov.
And it was Pastrnak again who put Boston ahead with 3:17 to go — lofting a backhand feed from the goal line that Pavel Zacha hammered home for the go-ahead goal.
And it was Zadorov who ended the festivities with a bang, cementing a night where a Bruins roster with seemingly nothing left to lose embraced their role as a team trying to claw back into the playoff picture.
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“I thought we good enough team to win hockey games right before the deadline as well,” Zadorov said. “We had some good games. We were unlucky. Some of them, we give up goals last minute and the third period. It’s just been a lot up and downs this year. And I think we’re kind of trying to find this consistency, trying to find this momentum.
“There’s a lot of guys who play with pride, and they play with their heart, and they try to prove something for either themselves or management or fans or their teammates. So we always play for something. So that’s what I see. The guys show up. All the guys out since Friday have been showing up ready to work, ready to work their balls off and play for the crest. There’s no quit in this team, and we’re gonna keep pushing until the end.”
It remains to be seen if the Bruins have the mettle, talent, and perhaps most importantly — games left — to claw back into the playoff picture.
But following Tuesday’s win, the Bruins sit just two points behind both the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets in the Wild Card standings — setting the stage for a pivotal matchup against the Sens on Thursday night.
The Bruins are still staring at an uphill climb when it comes to both playing postseason hockey this spring and orchestrating a seamless retool. But a night like Tuesday sure feels like a response worth remembering as this team looks to pen a new chapter moving forward.
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“Just a good spirited game,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “And like I said before, I think that’s the type of hockey we want to play, right? We’re not going to quit, we’re going to battle right to the end. That’s the Bruins, right? That’s what we want to be.”
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