BOSTON -- Bruins coach Claude Julien said at the morning skate that pugnacious Zac Rinaldo was behaving himself and keeping things under control.
Of course, those comments were well before his dirty head shot to Sean Couturier along the boards at the end of the first period of Wednesday's game at TD Garden.
Couturier, who took an elbow to the head and is likely concussed or has a whiplash injury, remained on the ice a few minutes before getting up and leaving on his own but did not return.
Rinaldo earned a five-minute major for charging and game misconduct and can expect his fourth career suspension by the weekend. Ten games at least.
“I saw the puck coming around the boards, and I thought (Couturier) still had focus on the puck,” Rinaldo said.
“I just tried to deliver a body check. That was about it," said Rinaldo. "I've got no comment on the call or anything like that. I guess I just tried to deliver a clean body check, and that's what I thought I did.”
At the morning skate, Rinaldo warned of “no friends” on the ice and he proved it.
Surprisingly, the Flyers did not react either on the ice or in the dressing room after the game.
“Calm down, take a deep breath,” Wayne Simmonds said when asked what players were saying on the bench. “We expected some aggression out of him. Things happen. It’s a hockey game. I don’t think Coots even had the puck. It was an unfortunate incident.”
Team captain Claude Giroux, who was on the ice, said he didn’t see the hit but he obviously said something since he got dinged with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“I didn’t see the replay. … I won’t comment on it,” Giroux said. “I just hope Coots is OK. When guys go down during a game, it’s important we stick together and find a way to win.”
Said goalie Steve Mason, “It’s tough seeing Coots go down like that. We didn’t like the hit, obviously. We’ll leave it at that.”
Julien almost lauded Rinaldo for keeping his sanity so far this season.
“Zac’s been good about, you know, fine-tuning his game a little bit,” Julien said. “Our message was clear, it’s been well-documented too, you know, I think this guy’s got some skill. He’s got some talent: he skates well, he forechecks well.
“You see him in practice — he can make great plays, got a good shot. But sometimes the other part of his game would take over so all we’ve asked him to do is balance that out, OK? We don’t want him to lose that edge that he has because it’s not a bad edge to have. He really can give your team a spark, he can give you some energy.”
Julien said he wanted Rinaldo to be an “agitator” just as he was in Philadelphia.
“I want him to be physical; I want him to agitate whenever he can, within the rules of course, but at the same time I want to see him play hockey. I don’t want to have a guy that just is one-dimensional and he has a skill level to be more than one-dimensional.”
Well, sounds like Rinaldo remains one-dimensional, just as he was in Flyerdom.
He should get a call from the league office this morning. He said he will state his case plainly.
“I thought I did the best I can to stay within the rules and deliver a clean body check,” Rinaldo said.
No Schenn
Brayden Schenn was a late scratch — two hours before game time — because of an upper-body injury. He took the morning skate which suggests he was testing something out.
On Tuesday, Schenn was upended very hard by Dallas’ Antoine Roussel. He appeared to land on his left shoulder. That hit triggered a fight between Roussel and Sam Gagner, who came to Schenn’s defense.
General manager Ron Hextall declined to add anything to Schenn’s injury. Gagner, who was announced at the morning skate as being a healthy scratch, replaced him in the lineup.
Which meant that Vinny Lecavalier remained a healthy scratch for the sixth consecutive game. The 35-year-old forward has yet to play this season.
Depending upon Couturier’s condition, the Flyers may have no choice but to play Lecavalier now unless they call someone up from the Phantoms.