Patrice Bergeron got in his third-career NHL fight Saturday. (AP)
Bruins fans saw a rare sight when Patrice Bergeron dropped the gloves in the second period of Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Sabres.
It was the first regular-season fight of Bergeron’s NHL career (he’s had two postseason fights) and it came as a result of a cross-check to the face he took from Buffalo defensemen Tyler Myers. With the two exchanging cross-checks (including a low shot from Myers), Bergeron said Myers getting him in the face was “the last straw.”
Myers won the bout, and though Bergeron skated to the box to the roar of the Garden crowd, there isn’t too much to like there. Given Bergeron’s concussion history (four at the NHL level, the most recent of which was last season), the risk/reward doesn’t swing in the Bruins’ favor.
In that case, however, Bergeron said he wasn’t afraid to go.
“I was fine with it,” Bergeron said. “I kind of asked him also.”
Claude Julien‘s take on it was that Bergeron had to fight to stand up for Myers’ cross-check, which he said he “couldn’t believe” wasn’t called a penalty.
Asked whether there’s any hesitation for him to fight given his concussion history, Bergeron said he was too fired up at the time to weigh the pros and cons.
“Obviously you don’t think about that when you’re on the ice and you’re fired up and you’re not happy with what just happened,” he said. “I kind of realized pretty quickly he was pretty tall and had a pretty good good reach, but you don’t think about it.”
The fight and his second-period cross-checking penalty gave Bergeron 13 penalty minutes over his last three games, which is one more than he had in the first 33 games of the season. He certainly won’t be winning the Lady Byng this season, but Bergeron isn’t concerned with the uptick in penalties he’s been taking.
“I mean, the other penalties before were more like part of the play ‘ a couple that my stick got caught in people’s skates,” Bergeron said. “Bu it’s part of the game also. You know, you’ve got to play and try to avoid them, but when it does happen there’s not much you can do.”
