Boston’s Jakub Lauko reacts after fighting with Minnesota’s Connor Dewar during the first period Tuesday in Boston. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
BOSTON — For the past several weeks, since Jakub Lauko wasn’t allowed to fight, and he wasn’t really allowed to play the way he wants to. So when the Bruins forward was given the green light to trade punches again, Lauko was eager to answer the bell Tuesday night in a 4-3 overtime loss against Minnesota.
It’s not that he wanted to fight specifically. Lauko is a willing glove-dropper, but hardly a goon or an enforcer, at 6-foot-1 and 193 pounds.
Ideally, the Bruins’ fourth liner wants to check everyone he can and let his physicality energize his teammates and knock opponents off their game. But there’s a code to playing this style, and if he can’t take a punch or some other retribution, he can’t hit the way he wants to.
It stems from when he got hit near the eye with a skate blade in late October. He was obviously fortunate that his eye was spared, but the injury limited him.
First, he was cleared to play with face protection. But he couldn’t fight wearing a cage. Then he got cleared to play but not fight. On Tuesday, his eye and the area around it were deemed – as strange as it sounds – healthy enough to get punched.
“I went into this game. It was the first time I could do my thing and play my game. Obviously, when you can’t fight, you can’t go around trying to hit everyone,” he said. “This was the first game I could play like I wanted to.”
When the Bruins came out flat, he was eager to be part of the solution and picked a fight with Connor Dewar.
Given the way this bout went, he probably didn’t need medical clearance. Lauko did most of the hitting while Dewar handled the getting hit. As the referee ushered him to the penalty box, he waved his arms to energize the crowd, yelling a slightly more profane version of “Let’s go!”
It seemed to work.
“It’s the first week I kind of had a green light to fight,” Lauko said. “We scored right after. … Obviously it gets the guys going. There’s a lot of emotion at the time.”
The Bruins tied the game when David Pastrnak took a cross-ice pass from John Beecher and slipped a wrister between Marc-Andre Fleury’s pads.
“It’s a big thing trying to get the guys going. There’s a lot of emotion.,” Lauko said. “I just let it out. It’s been boiling in me for two months. I just wanted to let it out.”
Bruins Coach Jim Montgomery was glad to have Lauko playing with his hair on fire again. He thought the fight provided the hoped-for spark.
“It was great. It got us into it. I thought we picked up our intensity after it,” said Montgomery. “They had just scored and we were a little flat. It picked us up. I do think that was his best game. Just because of his intensity. He was physical on pucks. He had at least three big hits that I remember.”
Lauko didn’t need medical clearance to try his other noteworthy move in the game, but maybe more practice. He scooped the puck onto the toe of his stick behind the net and attempted a lacrosse-style goal to dunk the puck into the net over an unsuspecting goalie’s shoulder. He was close, but he released the shot too early and the puck went wide.
“I’ve been doing it a lot in the summer in a Czech League back home,” he said. “I should have taken in a little bit further. It’s not a hard thing if you know how to do it. It’s just hard to find the right opportunity.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
