Bruins sound off on high hit to Patrice Bergeron

The Boston Bruins and Brad Marchand in particular came to the defense of their captain Patrice Bergeron during last night's game against the rival Montreal Canadiens after the latter was caught up high by Habs forward Rem Pitlick. Instantly, Marchand went after Pitlick and extracted a bit of vengeance. 

And you can bet that the Bruins were not happy about the perennial Selke Trophy winner and perhaps the classiest and most respected player in the League being hit up high like that.

“You don’t hit our captain late,” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. “That was a three-second late hit. I loved the fact that Marchand made the guy pay a price for doing it.”

“Two Original Six teams…obviously, anytime Bergy gets hit like that we’re going to react,” said Boston Bruins left winger Jake DeBrusk. “I actually didn’t see what happened, but you could just see the crowd go nuts, so I knew something was going on. There were a couple other scrums. Whenever these two teams match up, we always play each other hard.”

The Bruins and Canadiens have a long and storied rivalry, and naturally, games between the two sides always carry the potential for skirmishes. And for Montgomery, who is in his first season with the Bruins and is the odds-on favorite to win the Jack Adams Trophy as the League's top coach, he appreciates being involved. 

“Montreal and the Bruins seemed to play each other every year in the playoffs. The whole decade of the 1970’s – the Flyers interrupted it for a couple of years – and then in the 1980’s it was the Adams Division back then and they would each meet Buffalo and Quebec and then each meet up in the second round,” said Montgomery. “I wish we played that team more, particularly because it’ the Black and Gold against the Red, White and Blue. It’s the tradition of the game, for me.”