Chara shot fells Danault
Canadiens center suffers head injury from slapper
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
MONTREAL — It will be hard for a hockey civilian to imagine what Montreal Canadiens center Phillip Danault might have experienced last night when he was struck near the right temple, apparently at least partially on the plastic of his helmet, by a fullsteam slap shot taken by Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara.
With 1:37 left in the second period at the Bell Centre, Chara nailed Danault from about 20 feet away. Danault lay on the ice injured for several minutes, and Chara stood nearby the whole time.
Danault started to rise, but then slumped back down to the ice. After several more minutes, he was lifted onto a stretcher and taken off the ice. Chara and B’s center Patrice Bergeron each went over and said something to Danault as he was wheeled off.
There wasn’t much initial information, other than Danault was taken to a hospital with a head injury.
“I was hoping that he was not hurt, that’s obviously the first thing that goes through my mind,” Chara said. “It does happen. It’s just very unfortunate. Sometimes we all get hit somewhere in the upper body. On that particular play I was getting the pass up the boards and the puck was probably bouncing.
“Very unfortunate. You don’t want to ever see anyone getting hit in the head or neck area and getting carried off the ice. Obviously I’m wishing him a fast and full recovery. He was talking to me, responding. It made me feel better that he was responding and he was OK and not in a condition where he couldn’t respond.”
DeBrusk’s Price is right
Bruins rookie winger Jake DeBrusk had a night to remember in the 4-3 shootout victory in the rivals’ first meeting of the season.
Facing Canadiens star goalie Carey Price, DeBrusk had one shot during the game — and scored on an in-alone, bar-down forehander. DeBrusk then added a conversion against Price in the shootout.
“One of the best goaltenders in the game,” DeBrusk said of Price. “It was nice to see those chances go in. He’s a pretty intimidating goaltender to play against. Obviously, I got lucky. Something I’ll never forget.”
Playoff atmosphere
The clubs will play again at the Garden on Wednesday, then again on Saturday at the Bell Centre for three games in eight days. Bergeron wondered if the league might have set up this scheduling oddity to give it a playoff feel.
“It could be what they’re trying to accomplish with that,” Bergeron said. “It’s kind of weird that we’ve played almost half the year without seeing each other and now we’re going to see them three times. So (it is) definitely different.
“I’m looking forward to the week. It’s going to be big, huge points. They’re trying to climb up and for us, obviously, we’re trying to stay up and push teams down. We know it’s a really important week for them and even for us.”
Julien’s influence
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy on Canadiens coach Claude Julien’s ongoing legacy with his former team’s on-ice defensive style: “For the most part, Claude’s system has been really productive with the Bruins for a lot of years, so we kept a lot of that in place. Offensively, we’ve gone in a different direction in terms of how I always like to play and how I think the league is going. The one area we’ve tried to change is to play with more pace, just because the league has gone that way. But definitely on the defensive side of things, we use (the Julien system) as our anchor.” ...
Defenseman Adam McQuaid will have to wait for a chance to return to the lineup following his recovery from a broken leg.
“It’s a tough circumstance when things are going well,” Cassidy said. “It’s a long year. Adam will get his chance.”