Coach: "Teammate Protecting a Teammate"

BOSTON, MA- Sunday night’s game between the Bruins and Canadiens had it all - an intense rivalry game for the top position in the East that saw fights break out, back-to-back goals, a thunderous atmosphere and a B’s team that pressed until the end, but couldn’t find their comeback magic, falling to the Habs 4-3.

Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron racked up a combined eight points on the night, scoring two goals and recording six assists. And Seguin definitely had an extra spark to his game, firing five total shots on goal, including one at the very end that saw him robbed by Peter Budaj.

But no greater spark came than when Captain Zdeno Chara dropped the gloves with less than five minutes to go in the second period.

Seguin skated through the neural zone and passed the puck up to Bergeron, before Montreal’s Alexei Emelin came cross-ice and hit No. 19 on his left side, breaking his stick and sending the B’s forward sliding to the ice towards the Bruins bench. Seguin immediately went off the ice and down the tunnel to get checked out.

Meanwhile, Big Zee took an exception to the hit and fought Emelin in the corner behind Budaj, landing eight or nine upper cuts on the Hab.

“I mean, obviously the guy just broke his stick cross-checking Tyler and when he went down I was just reacting to it,” Chara told media postgame. “But he’s one of our best players and I’m not going to just watch him getting crushed like that.”

“We really are brothers. We just play for each other and protect each other.”

Read the full postgame feature at the link above or by clicking here.

-Caryn Switaj ^CS