On the night the Boston Bruins celebrated the "Lunch Pail AC" era of the late 1970s, David Pastrnak was one of the Bruins who turned up the physicality against the New York Rangers. Early in the second period, he decked Ryan Lindgren with a hard, clean hit.
Unfortunately, later in the second, Pastrnak took things too far and earned his first career game misconduct as a result. He lined up Lindgren again, but this time he hit him from behind and drove him face-first into the dasher, drawing blood.
The refs called a five-minute major for boarding, reviewed the hit, and upheld the major call and a game misconduct, ending Pastrnak's night.
Combined with a high-sticking penalty earlier in the game, Pastrnak wound up with 17 penalty minutes for the night, far surpassing his previous career high of six.
Now the question will be whether there is any further punishment coming for Pastrnak. He has been suspended once in his career, for two games back in 2016 for a hit to the head on Dan Girardi (also a Ranger at the time).
The Bruins were leading 1-0 at the time of Pastrnak's hit, and wound up killing off the major. However, the Rangers did eventually tie the game and went on to win 2-1 in overtime.
After the game, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he was "very surprised" Pastrnak got five minutes and a game misconduct.
"Very surprised. I thought it was two minutes," Montgomery said. "...I don't think he hits him anywhere near his numbers. I think he hits him on the front of his shoulder. Unfortunately, he got hurt. So, if there's blood, that affects the call. If I compare that hit to hits I've seen, like when Marchand got hit, blasted from behind into the boards [by Givani Smith in a recent game against San Jose], that's more of a five-minute major for me."
