The Bruins forward hasn’t contributed offensively in this series as much as he might like, and his frustration showed in Game 3. Lucic received three roughing penalties on the night, including one for his participation in a fracas with less than three minutes to go in the third period. Alzner joined the fray and put Lucic, a fellow British Columbia native, in a headlock.
When Lucic was escorted to the penalty box, Alzner made a “crybaby” gesture as if wiping away tears from his eyes as he made his way to the bench.
“I don’t even know what to say on my side to show I’m not a crybaby,” Lucic said with a laugh. “That’s a lot coming from a guy who I think has two roughing penalties in three years.”
Alzner didn’t want to say much following Washington’s loss but he didn’t seem to have second thoughts about engaging Lucic as he waited for a chance to talk to Boston’s Brad Marchand. The Capitals’ defenseman said he unintentionally elbowed Marchand during the course of the contest and wanted to apologize.
Sure, Alzner isn’t the tough guy that Lucic is, but in the playoffs no one is immune from getting caught up in the extra-curricular activities and everyone is able to be irritated by foes that grow too familiar.
“You get sick of competing against them,” Capitals center Brooks Laich said about the intensity that grows within a series. “There’s games within the game. There’s matchups. There’s line-matching. There’s some verbal jousting, I guess you would say. It’s all in competition. You know, they’re gonna try to do whatever they can to get us off our game and we’re gonna try the same to them. We want to play between the whistles.”
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