Bruins star reacts to getting hit from behind against Panthers

BOSTON — David Pastrnak said he has no problem with the Florida Panthers or anyone looking to him for hard checks.

The Bruins’ star winger expects it, and as long as it’s legal, he has no beef.

“I don’t have a problem with being hunted or as long as it’s within the rules and they’re clean hits. I can take them. I have no problem. I can take a hit,” he said after Tuesday’s practice. “Zero problem with a clean hit. … You have to take it. And it’s a tough sport, so if you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t be in the league.”

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Pastrnak said he hasn’t seen the video of AJ Greer’s hit that sent him sprawling and turned up the heat in the Bruins’ 4-3 loss to the Panthers on Monday.

“I know it was from behind. I didn’t see the replay. I didn’t see what happened next,” said Pastrnak, whose face hit Jesper Boqvist’s skate on the ice, cutting his upper lip. “I didn’t see him coming. He was behind me. I don’t know if it was a cross check or just a push because he was behind me.”

Pavel Zacha, who had only one fight in his career prior to this, immediately jumped in to fight Greer, who was not penalized for the initial hit.

“I definitely appreciate it. We always have each other’s backs. And we’ll always do that in this room. So that’s great to see. And, you know, I’m proud of him,” said Pastrnak, who made sure to ‘thank Zacha. “You appreciate that the guy has his back and you just want to make sure he knows you’d do the same for him. So yeah, obviously I appreciate it.”

Pastrnak said the honor of being with your teammates still has to come with discretion.

“These two games against Florida, we were very undisciplined, we took unnecessary penalties and you put a team like Florida on the power play, they’re going to make you pay,” said P{astrnak, who received an ill-advised interference penalty. shortly after.. “So we make it harder against these guys because we give them a lot of opportunities on power plays. It was a pretty close game, but they got the power play goals, and that was tough to come from behind “.

The Bruins begin a three-game road trip beginning Wednesday at 9:00 PM against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.