While it was just the second meeting of the season between the Bruins and Canadiens, there was no shortage of animosity between the two rivals. The fireworks began in the early going when Montreal's Rem Pitlick delivered a late and high hit on Patrice Bergeron that knocked the Bruins' captain to the ice behind the Canadiens' net midway through the first period.
Brad Marchand did not take kindly to the shot from the Canadiens forward and quickly engaged him, landing a few jabs as he tackled 5-foot-11, 186-pounder to the ice. Marchand was assessed a double-minor for roughing, while Pitlick received a two-minute minor for interference.
"You don't hit our captain late," said Montgomery. "That was a three-second late hit. I loved the fact that Marchand made the guy pay a price for doing it."
Marchand's teammates concurred with the coach, complimenting Marchand for his swift action in defending his longtime linemate.
"Two Original Six teams…obviously, anytime Bergy gets hit like that we're going to react," said 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."
"What I would point out is [Marchand] sticking up for Bergy," added Pastrnak. "It's obviously outstanding, and that's been kind of our motto in the team. It's great to see when a guy like Marchy sticks up for our captain and definitely gets everybody going on the bench."Late in the first period, A.J. Greer and Mike Hoffman tussled before a faceoff in the neutral zone. After Hoffman whacked Greer with his stick, Greer delivered a cross-check that rode up and caught the Montreal forward in the chin. Greer was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
"We talked about playing with emotion, which is great, but not getting emotional," said Montgomery. "Unfortunately, Greersy that stick rode up. I don't know if it rode up the stick or the shoulder pad and it cut him. It's something we can learn from…because you can't take those kinds of penalties in playoffs."
"Whenever I do talk to him, because we're going to be off [Friday], I'll talk to him about the necessity of controlling his emotions and that he needs to learn from it, that's all. We're going to move past that."