Boston Bruins
“Just play hard against the top players on their team. That’s my job.”
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube had to bone to pick hours ahead of puck drop on Tuesday.
Just a few days earlier, Bruins blueliner Nikita Zadorov bulldozed Toronto forward Scott Laughton — knocking the veteran out of an eventual 5-3 Boston victory at Scotiabank Arena.
Zadorov wasn’t penalized or fined for the hit, while Laughton is currently sidelined with an upper-body injury.
For Berube, Tuesday presented an ideal opportunity for a desperate Toronto team to exact some revenge against both Zadorov and the Bruins.
“Nobody would be happy with that,” Berube said Tuesday after morning skate. “It’s a tough hit. But it is what it is. … It should inject some fire in you for sure, but we don’t want to be stupid either. We’ve got to play the game. We’ve got to play it right. Opportunity arises, you get a good lick on a guy, you get a good lick on the guy.”
But little changed on Tuesday night at TD Garden.
The Bruins once again skated off the ice as 5-3 victors over Toronto.
Zadorov once again extracted a pound of flesh from Boston’s Original Six foe.
And Berube was left fuming after Boston’s 6-foot-7 defenseman left a trail of destruction in his wake against the Leafs.
“I think it’s a penalty, personally, but I’m not the referee,” Berube said after Toronto franchise center Auston Matthews had to exit Tuesday’s game after several collisions with Zadorov. “I don’t like it. I don’t like the hit.”
Zadorov brushed aside any of the discourse regarding his run-ins with Matthews, who exited the game after the second period after getting bowled over by the imposing blueliner along the boards. Matthews’ attempt to square up Zadorov just seconds later might have been what eventually forced him down the tunnel.
Regardless of what led to Matthews’ exit with a lower-body ailment, Zadorov has few regrets over his track record as a dogged defender and punishing force out on the ice.
“If you can see on the video, I hit him in my chest,” Zadorov said. “So it wasn’t really any intention to hurt him or anything like [that]. Just play hard against the top players on their team. That’s my job.”
Zadorov’s knack for snuffing out scoring chances and separating pucks from opponents has been evident this season — with his chemistry alongside Charlie McAvoy helping to shore up Boston’s defensive structure amid this current seven-game win streak.
But Zadorov’s reputation as an on-ice battering ram, relentless antagonist, and forceful deterrent against opposing tomfoolery also played a key role in why Boston targeted him in free agency in July 2024 — with the Bruins in desperate need of more cage-rattlers who were ready and willing to drag teammates into the fight.
The Maple Leafs witnessed that firsthand over two regulation losses against Boston in the span of four days — with Zadorov’s frame and propensity for delivering bone-crunching hits placing two Toronto skaters on the shelf.
In a chippy game with 30 penalty minutes handed out on Tuesday, Zadorov was more than happy to be the hammer when called upon.
After Leafs winger Sammy Blais caught McAvoy with a knee-on-knee hit in the third period, it took only a few strides for Zadorov to come over and take Blais down — starting an extended scrap that resulted in matching penalties.
Even if Marco Sturm didn’t exactly like the timing of Zadorov’s penalty — with Boston looking to close out the win in crunch time — he has had no qualms with his team’s willingness to stand up for one another.
It was reinforced earlier in the third period when 5-foot-9 Marat Khusnutdinov jumped into a fracas spurred by 6-foot-2 Leafs forward Bobby McMann delivering a cheap shot against Hampus Lindholm.
“They want to send a message,” Sturm said postgame of the Leafs. “They want to get everyone going. … [The] nice part about our team right now — if one guy says something, from the other team, we have the whole bench standing up. … They can play that game, But we’re well-prepared for that, that’s for sure.”
Even if Zadorov’s natural inclination is to jump into the fray when the gloves are dropped, he also showcased some restraint at critical moments of Tuesday’s win.
After Leafs center Max Domi hip-checked Zadorov into Jeremy Swayman in the third period, he delivered a cross-check to the toppled Bruins blueliner. Zadorov had a justified reason to land a few haymakers against the 5-foot-9 Domi after getting back on his skates.
But he opted instead to grapple with the smaller Leafs forward and drop him to the ice, with Domi the lone player sent to the sin bin.
It was an ill-timed move by Domi, considering that the Leafs were seemingly putting Boston on the ropes in what was a 4-3 Bruins lead at the time. But with Zadorov avoiding a penalty by ducking a bout with Domi, the Bruins went on the power play — with David Pastrnak giving his team some breathing room with a tally on that man advantage.
“Look at Z there, like a guy jumps and he stays cool,” Hampus Lindholm said. “We get a power play. It’s the way we need to move and play here. I think that’s the way to do it. We frustrated them with our team play and playing physical and then stayed away from that stupid stuff.”
For Zadorov, fighting Domi — his former teammate with the London Knights — stood as a “lose-lose situation”, given the potential of ending up in the penalty box himself, along with the uneven tale of the tape had he beaten down a player far smaller than him.
But Zadorov — who is continuing to stake his claim as a key cog in Boston’s shifting culture and winning results as of late — did relish the results of getting under Domi’s skin.
“That felt good, I let him know for sure,” Zadorov said of Boston scoring after Domi’s penalty.
It won’t be the last time this season that Zadorov’s actions and antics — intentional or not — have opposing players and coaches steaming after a game.
Just as the Bruins drew it up.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
