Boston Brawlers: Nikita Zadorov Continues To Add Grit To Bruins

The Bruins showed a solid turnaround in Joe Sacco’s first eight games as interim head coach and showed they haven’t lost their grit.

Boston is 6-2 in Sacco’s first eight games as interim head coach and only gave up three or more goals once in that stretch. One of Sacco’s primary goals when he took over for Jim Montgomery was to make the Black and Gold a tougher team to play against. That was on display in the centennial game last Sunday as the B’s asserted themselves against the Montreal Canadiens.

For this edition of “Boston Brawlers,” we’ll first take a look back at last Friday’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins as we chronicle the best hits and fights from the past week.

SECOND HELPINGS
Boston fell short against Pittsburgh, but Trent Frederic maintained the Bruins’ physical presence when he laid out Kris Letang.

BITTER RIVALS
The Bruins-Canadiens rivalry in the 2020s isn’t the same as it was in its peak years. However, Jeremy Swayman brought it in the centennial game with a casual shove of Nick Suzuki. Things continued to get hectic as the Bruins tried to close out Montreal with plenty of pushing and shoving throughout to get the TD Garden crowd going.

GORDIE HOWE NEAR-MISS
Nikita Zadorov showed the Red Wings on Tuesday how much of a brute force he can be. He nailed an explosive slap-shot goal to get Boston ahead, and later in the matchup, the blueliner shoved Ben Chiarot into the ice. It wasn’t exactly a fight, but Zadorov was an assist away from making an argument for a Gordie Howe hat trick. The 29-year-old also threw a dig at Detroit for not stepping up to the plate and allegedly flopping for penalties.

HONORABLE MENTION
This series is meant to look back on the best hits and brawls on the ice, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the verbal jabs Brad Marchand threw at Paul Bissonnette. The Bruins’ social media team even threw a hilarious dig at the Turner Sports analyst.

You can catch more Bruins action on NESN and subscribe to NESN 360 if you’re on the go. Boston will be back in action on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers with pregame at noon ET.