BOSTON — For the past several weeks, since Jakub Lauko wasn’t allowed to fight, he wasn’t really allowed to play the way he wants to. So when the Bruins forward was given the green light to trade punches again, Lauko was eager to answer the bell Tuesday against Minnesota.
It’s not that he wanted to fight specifically. Lauko is a willing glove-dropper, but hardly a goon or an enforcer at 6-foot-1, 193 pounds.
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Ideally, the Bruins’ fourth liner wants to check everyone he can and let his physicality energize his teammates and knock opponents off their game. But there’s a code to playing this style and if he can’t take a punch or some other retribution, he can’t hit the way he wants to.
It stems from when he got hit near the eye with a skate blade in late October. He was obviously fortunate that his eye was spared, but the injury limited him.
First, he was cleared to play with face protection. But he couldn’t fight wearing a cage. Then he got cleared to play but not fight. On Tuesday, his eye and the area around it were deemed – as strange as it sounds — healthy enough to get punched.
“I went into this game. It was the first time I could do my thing and play my game. Obviously, when you can’t fight, you can’t go around trying to hit everyone,” he said. “This was the first game I could play like I wanted to.”
When the Bruins came out flat, he was eager to be part of the solution and picked a fight with Connor Dewar.
Given the way this bout went, he probably didn’t need medical clearance. Lauko did most of the hitting while Dewar handled the getting hit. As the referee ushered him to the penalty box, he waved his arms to energize the crowd yelling a slightly more profane version of “Let’s go!”
“It’s a big thing trying to get the guys going. There’s a lot of emotion.,” Lauko said. “I just let it out. It’s been boiling in me for two months. I just wanted to let it out.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was glad to have Lauko playing with his hair on fire again. He thought the fight provided the hoped-for spark.
“It was great. It got us into it. I thought we picked up our intensity after it,” he said. “They had just scored and we were a little flat. It picked us up.
“I do think that was his best game. Just because of his intensity. He was physical on pucks,” Montgomery said. “He had at least three big hits that I remember.”
Lauko didn’t need medical clearance to try his other noteworthy move in the game, just practice. He scooped the puck onto the toe of his stick behind the net and attempted a lacrosse-style goal to dunk the puck into the net over an unsuspecting goalie’s shoulder. He was close, but he released the shot too early and the puck went wide.
“I’ve been doing it a lot in the summer in a Czech League back home,” he said. “I should have taken in a little bit further. It’s not a hard thing if you know how to do it. It’s just hard to find the right opportunity.”
