Torey Krug and Andrew Shaw trade questionable hits during physical Canadiens-Bruins game

Update 12/13: Krug won’t have a disciplinary hearing for this hit on Shaw. The Department of Player Safety ruled Shaw put himself in a vulnerable position on the play.

Original story:

It took all of 10 minutes on Monday for the Bruins and Canadiens’ storied rivalry to boil over into serious physicality.

A couple of penalties were handed out and a few power play chances wasted before one big hit led to renewed hostilities. Alexei Emelin, the Canadiens’ hard-hitting defenseman, leveled Bruins forward David Pastrnak. And then Bruins defenseman Torey Krug landed a hard hit of his own on Habs winger Andrew Shaw.

The hit by Emelin was hard and was going to require some retaliation; after all, Pastrnak is the Bruins’ leading scorer. But Krug’s hit seemed a bit ... high?

At any rate, no penalties were assessed to either but Krug fought Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher after some goading in the corner. Unwritten hockey justice seems to have been served, but whether the NHL takes a closer look at the hit on Shaw remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Alexander Radulov let the period end with this hit on a Bruins defenseman, leading to another scrum before the final whistle. The second period should be interesting.

Shaw eventually returned after most of the anger had subsided late in the third period of a close game. The physicality hadn’t died down, and Shaw re-entered the fray with a hit of his own that seemed eerily familiar to this rivalry

We avoided the big brawl on Monday, but somehow that seems preferable to the individual, borderline hits we did get between the Canadiens and Bruins.