Things got a bit out of hand between the Bruins and the Panthers at the end of Game 2
BOSTON -- The end of Game 2 between the Bruins and the Panthers got a bit out of hand. Tempers flared from both ends as Florida finished off a 6-3 win at TD Garden, which led to some questionable hits, a few wrestling matches, and a whole lot of trash talk between the two teams.
All of that should make for an interesting Game 3 in Florida on Friday night.
The Bruins got pushed around by an aggressive Panthers team for most of Wednesday night, and started to push back as Florida closed out its win. Some of those pushbacks may have gone a bit too far.
With just under two minutes to go, Tomas Nosek delivered a high elbow to the chin of Florida's Eric Staal. Play was halted after Staal remained on the ice, but Nosek was not hit with a penalty.
The Panthers weren't very pleased with that, which led to a NSFW (but pretty entertaining) hot-mic exchange between the two teams.
"Good hit," Staal sarcastically said to Nosek. "Good clean hit. That was f------ nice. Good clean hit. Good clean hit. you f------ loser."
Nosek told Staal to shush (he used a different phrase) and that he barely hit him.
The league may see that play differently, and Nosek will likely be having a conversation with the Department of Player Safety in the near future.
Tempers calmed briefly, before the final seconds of the game got really out of hand. Scrums broke out all over the ice, with Boston's Derek Forbort, Nick Foligno, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Trent Frederick all dusting it up with whichever Panther they could find. Frederick and Florida's Ryan Lomberg got into a decent tussle, and all of the aforementioned players -- and Florida's Radko Gudas -- were assessed ten-minute misconducts.
The Panthers sent a message to the Bruins with a convincing road win on Wednesday night. But the Bruins sent a message at the end that they won't accept being pushed around.
It sets to stage for a very interesting Game 3 on Friday night.
