Cole Koepke hadn’t been in a fight in two years until Thursday night when he dropped the gloves with Kaiden Guhle in the second period of the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Boston’s forward took exception to a big hit on Fabian Lysell — who drew back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Thursday. Lysell took a few big hits Thursday night. He got right back up after each one, but Koepke had seen enough.
Koepke got the better of Guhle in the bout.
“I just thought it was a big hit on Lysell and they were taking it to us in the second,” Koepke told reporters at Bell Centre. “So I wanted to stand in for him and then I also thought it was a good time to try and get some energy for the team and kind of try to flip the script, and get the game back even and get some pressure on them.”
The Bruins were down 1-0 at the time of Koepke’s fight, but it did little to get them even with Montreal. Boston’s second period woes continued, the Canadiens went up 2-0 and that was enough to hand the Bruins their 10th straight loss.
Boston was already fighting for the second Wild Card spot before its 10-game skid, and Thursday’s loss pushed the team even further out of the picture. At this point, the Bruins need to win the remainder of their games and get plenty of help from other teams.
