Even though it happened three weeks ago, the incident between Boston Bruins standout David Pastrnak and Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk continues to be discussed.
Pastrnak and Tkachuk fought in the third period of the Bruins’ Game 2 away defeat to the Panthers in the second round.
Some information about what led to the fight emerged in the aftermath, and Pastrnak provided lots of insight into the altercation during his appearance on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast on Tuesday.
“He was barking.” I felt that if I wanted to fight him, it would either rile them up or give them something to bark about,” Pastrnak told hosts Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, and Brian “Rear Admiral” McGonagle. “I said, ‘Let’s do it at home next game, first shift.'” He initially replied okay, but then returned to the bench and stated, ‘No, we’re doing it right now.’ I was like, ‘It’s a 6-1
hockey game. Let’s do it first shift the following game. We are both players. That’s a trade you want to make, correct? I take him, and he takes me out of the game for five. And he says, ‘No, let’s do it right now.’ “I was fine with going because I felt that going with him would benefit me more than not going with him since you would listen to it for the rest of the series. So that is how I felt.
After informing Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery about the impending situation, Pastrnak devised an offensive strategy. However, Pastrnak began to question his assumptions. “I was going to be so aggressive,” Pastrnak explained. “But then I remembered, as I was jumping over the boards, Jake DeBrusk said, ‘Be careful, he’s going to come in hot. He is going to come in hot. I am about to have my second fight, and you are saying that to me. So I was like:
“Oh my God, he’s going to come fast at me.”
Pastrnak, who led Czechia to the IIHF World Championship on Sunday, isn’t used to scrapping and quickly learned how difficult it can be. After swinging, he fell to the ice and suffered punches from Tkachuk. “I was going to wait for the first punch and I was going dodge it, which I did,” Pastrnak stated. But man, Biz, I had no idea how difficult it is to maintain the balance. It’s crazy. I felt unbalanced after avoiding the first hit. That’s too bad.
Despite having plenty of time to process what transpired, Pastrnak does not regret going at it with Tkachuk.
“Honestly, I’m happy I did it,”
Pastrnak stated. “I believe that was a good juice-up. They were just so much deeper and better than us, regrettably.
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