It’s been a season of development for former Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin as he’s spent most of the year in the AHL with the Providence Bruins.
The 23-year-old forward has only been up at the NHL level with the Boston Bruins for a couple of games this season but has been solid with the P-Bruins posting 11 goals and 23 points in 52 games along with a plus-3 rating. But the American Hockey League is a bit of a different world where things can get a little rougher than they typically do at the NHL level these days as McLaughlin unfortunately found out during a game last weekend.
McLaughlin dropped the gloves in a tilt with Lehigh Valley Phantoms player Garrett Wilson toward the end of a 3-1 loss for the P-Bruins, and the nasty tilt left the former college hockey player bloodied and dazed as he was helped off the ice in the bout’s aftermath.
It was unclear whether it was one of Wilson’s punches that bloodied the P-Bruins forward or if McLaughlin was cut open and bleeding that profusely after getting busted open by his own visor during the flurry of punches.
McLaughlin had a couple of fights as a junior hockey player, but the bloody hockey fight against Wilson was the Billerica native’s first career fight as a professional hockey player and he’s not likely to forget about it anytime soon. It may be a little while before McLaughlin drops the gloves at the pro level and that may not be the worst thing in the world given his skill level and college hockey background prior to signing with the B’s.
McLaughlin has been amongst a number of P-Bruins players including Chris Wagner, Joona Koppanen and Jakub Lauko that have had bottom-6 reps for the Black and Gold this season and will be a prime candidate to be one of the Black Aces once the Stanley Cup playoffs get going a few months from now.
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