Zacha Says Bruins Must Go After Panthers’ ‘Top Guys’

Brad Marchand missed a couple of shifts but returned and tried to battle through whatever the injury was that he suffered in the collision with Bennett. After playing 10:51, 15 shifts, and registering four hits but no points, Marchand was done after two periods of play. He did not practice on Saturday.

Montgomery let it be known on Saturday that he believed Bennett made a dirty play on Marchand.

“In real-time, my eyes weren’t on there as the puck had left that area,” Montgomery told reporters after his captain missed practice on Saturday. “But having seen it, there’s a history there with Bennett. Hard player, but there’s clearly evidence of what went on. People can say it wasn’t intentional, but we have our view of it.”

On Sunday, Montgomery took the blame for not urging his players to retaliate for what he is now terming as an ‘out of line’ play by Bennett.

“I feel that that’s my fault that we didn’t retaliate to some degree, but you’re trying to get back in a game,” Montgomery explained. “So there’s reasons why we didn’t, but again, I think there’s something that I personally take responsibility for.”

As Frederic pointed out, though, most Bruins players weren’t aware of the sucker punch Bennett delivered at the end of the reverse hit on Marchand.

“I think guys have now seen a replay. It slowed down and kind of see what he did at the time. I don’t know if we knew how bad it was and I guess now we do,” the Bruins rugged forward said.

Now that they do know, will they heed Zacha’s advice?

“I’m sure all these refs are aware of what happened in the last three games and what happened last game,” Frederic said. “In a perfect world, where we can just go do something about it, and it’s an eyeball for an eyeball. Sometimes it’s not exactly how it works, and you just got to find your spot.”