Marchand Concerned For Paquette's Health And Safety Following Scrap With Chara
BOSTON (CBS) -- Bruins rookie David Pastrnak scored twice in the team's 4-3 victory over the Lightning on Tuesday, but that was not the most unexpected sight of the night.
Those honors belong to the actions of 21-year-old forward Cedric Paquette, a young man who went after 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara not once but twice.
Twice!
The first instance came after Chara hit Matt Carle awkwardly into the corner boards. Paquette skated up to Chara as if to challenge him, even offering a light fist to the face. You can see that clear as day here:
Now, because no hand can make its way all the way up to Chara's face by accident, the Bruins captain took this as an opportunity to teach the kid what happens when you make such a mistake.
Paquette took the better part of a minute to get up after absorbing that shot from Chara, and the Quebec native headed to the Tampa locker room for some attention.
Undeterred, Paquette later returned to the game, and he was apparently feeling pretty good. He showed that by delivering a solid shoulder-to-shoulder body check on David Krejci at center ice ... and then standing over Krejci for a quick taunt.
And then, as the final seconds ticked off the clock, with his team desperately trying to pot the tying goal and force overtime, Paquette ... swung a wild haymaker at Chara.
The unprovoked assault on Chara led to a very-much-provoked attack on Paquette. Perhaps realizing he had made a terrible mistake, Paquette played dead and backed away from the angry big man before officials came in to break up the fight.
Pete Blackburn posted a Vine of the incident:
https://vine.co/v/ODjWPDig0AU
When the game ended, Paquette's daredevil antics were obviously a major point of discussion.
And Brad Marchand, a guy who knows a little something about going after people much bigger than him, offered the best thought on the subject.
"Yeah, I don't know what that kid was thinking," Marchand said with a smile. "I mean, you don't mess with Z. There are some guys where you can push them and they'll just kind of let it go, but if you're going to challenge Z, then you're going to have to deal with the consequences. He took a pretty hard punch there the first time, and I don't know what he was thinking going back at him.
"He must have forgot that we play them three more times," Marchand continued. "So hopefully he'll be sent down by then -- for his sake."
The Bruins and Lightning meet again on March 12. We'll see then if Paquette goes barking up that tree once more.
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