COMMENTARY
Sam Bennett has doled out plenty of pain against the Bruins over the last few years.
Be it sucker-punching (now teammate Brad Marchand) and knocking him out multiple games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs or tormenting Boston en route to a stunning first-round defeat in their record-setting 2022-23 campaign, the pesky forward has a knack for poking the bear at critical times.
But on Tuesday night at a raucous TD Garden, Nikita Zadorov and the Bruins finally decided to punch back. Multiple times.
In the closing seconds of Boston’s 3-2 comeback win over the Panthers, a netfront fracas ended with Bennett delivering a cross-check to the 6-foot-6 Bruins defenseman.