Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov is no fan of Lucas Raymond’s antics
Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov is no stranger to taking penalties.
In fact, with three more minors assessed his way in Tuesday’s overtime win over the Red Wings, Zadorov is up to a league-leading 19 minors this season. That was after Zadorov already entered play with a league-high 16 minors assessed through 26 games played, of course.
But when it comes to those penalties, Zadorov wants to make sure they’re truly earned and not jacked-up by the offended player, which is clearly what he thought the Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond did on a second-period slash from Boston’s 6-foot-6 blue liner.
“I don’t like when the guy’s shaking his hand,” Zadorov said of his incident with Raymond, which saw him go after Raymond after a penalty was called. “I barely touched his hand, so I think that’s got to get out of the league. It’s a man’s league. We all get slashed. We’re all in pain. But you don’t go like this and show the referee that you get slashed. So I think it’s just a little bit disrespectful.”
To Zadorov, the referees do not need Raymond’s help when it comes to doling out penalties.
“Well, I mean, the referees — Wes [McCauley] and Jon [McIsaac], they’ve been in the league for a while,” Zadorov noted. “You know, they’ve seen hard play. They’ve seen when guys play hard. And I think even they agree it should be out of the league like this.
“You don’t sell penalties. They see it. That’s why there’s two refs.”
This is not the first time that the Bruins have had an incident with Raymond this season, as Raymond drew a late-game hooking call against B’s captain Brad Marchand on Nov. 23. That was a penalty where Marchand was downright flabbergasted by the call on the ice, too, as he felt that Raymond had intentionally hooked and chicken-winged his stick into his arm in an effort to draw the call. Marchand even had to go back and pick up his stick before reporting to the box, as Raymond wedged it so far and high into himself that Marchand ultimately lost control of it entirely.
And perhaps most notably — at least when it comes to Zadorov’s thoughts on Raymond and what he views as disrespectful to the game — this is not the first incident between the two.
Nor has it even been a full year since their last incident, with Zadorov and Raymond involved in a situation during Zadorov’s run with the Canucks last season, and with Zadorov ultimately given the first league-issued suspension of his career for what was deemed an illegal check to the head.
Despite the three penalties handed down to him in the win, Zadorov had a positive night for the Bruins, with his first ‘real’ goal (read as: scored on a goalie, not an empty net) in a Bruins sweater to go with four hits and four shots in over 18 minutes of time on ice for the Bruins.
As for Zadorov vs. Raymond, the sides will have to wait a loooooooong time to reconnect on a closer level, as the Bruins and Red Wings will not meet again until Mar. 29.
