Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov wasn't pleased Buffalo Sabres forward Jordan Greenway wasn't interested in a fight after an accidental collision caused B's star Elias Lindholm to leave Thursday night's game with a lower-body injury.
Zadorov fought Greenway in March after the punishing blueliner, who started his NHL career with the Sabres, delivered a late hit to Buffalo cornerstone Tage Thompson. He felt a rematch was warranted based on what happened to Lindholm.
"I just thought that if I have to fight after clean hits — you know, when I hit their top player, I have to give the guy a fight last year. I think that would be fair to give me [a] fight back," Zadorov told reporters. "... That's one of our best players. That's my brother. So I felt like that would be a fair trade-off. But I guess he didn't want it. So, yeah."
Bruins head coach Marco Sturm added: "They all wanted a piece of him, and that makes me happy."
Boston ultimately got the last laugh as Marat Khusnutdinov scored in overtime to give the B's their second win over the Sabres already this season. They await further word on Lindholm's status to see whether it was a pyrrhic victory.
Comparing the Tage Thompson and Elias Lindholm situations doesn't make sense as Boston Bruins target Buffalo Sabres' Jordan Greenway
Zadorov's hit on Thompson last season was not "clean," as he suggested in his postgame remarks. The Sabres superstar had already passed the puck and turned his head before the 6-foot-6 defenseman stepped up to deliver a crushing blow.
It also struck a sore spot for Buffalo, which received league-wide criticism for failing to respond after Thompson received a high hit from the New Jersey Devils' Stefan Noesen one month earlier.
In that moment, Greenway had no choice but to take on Zadorov despite barely qualifying for the blueliner's weight class.
What happened Thursday night was completely incidental. Greenway was skating in one direction trying to track the puck and Lindholm was moving the opposite direction trying to wrangle in a pass, and it turned into a collision at center ice.
There was no intent to even deliver a hard hit by the veteran Sabres winger, let alone injure one of Boston's top players. It was an accident.
In addition, Greenway was making his first appearance of the 2025-26 season after recovering from offseason surgery. It was the latest setback as part of an injury-riddled career for the 28-year-old New York native.
He's not going to accept a fight against a more battle-tested brawler and risk landing back on injured reserve for another extended period.
The Bruins did get their fight in the end, as the Sabres' Peyton Krebs answered the bell by taking on Boston's Michael Eyssimont in a short, mostly uneventful bout.
All told, policing the game and protecting your teammates is an important, longstanding part of hockey tradition, and it's understandable the B's were fuming after Lindholm was forced to exit the contest.
Suggesting Greenway was wrong for not fighting, especially given his injury situation, merely doesn't make any sense within the context of the moment, though.