Bruins Forward Slashes Referee By Accident as Opening Night Game Gets Heated

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Liam McCormick
October 8, 2024 (8:36 PM)

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Tonight's home opening game between the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers was questionable to even happen do to a hurricane, but the game went on and was a wild one.

The Florida Panthers began the game with their Stanley Cup Ring Ceremony in front of their rival Bruins, and it may have turned up the temperature on the game. Scrums, fight, and wild plays ensued all game - including Bruins forward Max Jones slashing a referee.

Jones clearly meant to give a hard slash towards Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, but he instead made direct contact with a referee. The ref seriously winced in pain, and Jones was given an unsportsmanlike penalty. Jones checked up on the ref immediately after, but he still had to serve his deserved penalty. The NHL needs to protect its referees at all costs and even from errant sticks, so perhaps Player Safety even looks at this play.

It was heated from puck drop, with a fight occurring around 5 minutes into the game. Bruin Mark Kastelic made an open ice hit in the neutral zone, while Panthers enforcer AJ Greer was skating by. Greer grabbed Kastelic immediately, and quickly pummelled the Bruin to the ice in a hardcore fight.

Click here to view the video for the fight between AJ Greer and Mark Kastelic.

Nikita Zadorov made an impression in his first game with the Boston Bruins by targeting Matthew Tkachuk more than a few times. Once after the whsitle, Zadorov went direct for Tkachuk and grabbed him by the collar looking for a fight. An animated scrum broke out with almost every player pairing off with another.

Panthers power forward Sam Bennett took a hard run direct to the net, and ran over Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo in almost a hilarious way, causing yet another scrum to ensue.

The Panthers had a big lead up on the Bruins, who did come back a bit to make the game interesting, but Florida came away in their home opener with a 6-4 win. With such a heated game in just game one, any matchups between these two teams may be must watch television for hockey fans.