BOSTON — Max Domi wanted to fight and Nikita Zadorov understood why. But the Bruins defenseman wasn’t going to accept for a lot of reasons.
For starters, they’re old friends. They were teammates and won an OHL Championship together for the London Knights 13 years ago.
“I’m not going to fight my friend. I see what he’s doing and the player he is. He and his dad (longtime NHL tough guy Tie Domi) have been great to me,” Zadorov said after Boston’s 5-3 win. “Max started to go after me for my style and what I did to his teammates, I guess. ”
Plus, Domi is listed at 5-foot-10, 208 pounds. He may, in fact, be shorter than that. Zadorov is 6-foot-7, 255 pounds. It might be the size of fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight, as the old adage goes, but in this case, the dog would have been fighting a bear.
There’s a reason boxing has weight classes.
“Like I told Max, he’s way, way shorter than me and smaller than me,” Zadorov said. “It’s a lose-lose situation for me if I fight him. There was no point for me to do anything there.”
Instead, Zadorov wrapped him up in front of the Bruins’ goal, and Domi yanked Zadorov to the ice, where he landed on top of the Toronto center.
Domi was called for roughing, while Zadorov, who didn’t engage, went unpenalized. The Bruins scored on the ensuing power play, sparking Zadorov to chirp.
“That felt good,” he said. “I let him know for sure.”
Domi declined to engage the media.
“I’m not going to comment too much on that stuff. It all stays in the glass out there,“ Domi said. ”But you don’t want to see anyone go down. … It’s part of the game. We’re not going to take a step back and,