Rene Bourque trades punches with Matt Hendricks. AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Tom Boland

Hendricks Takes on Bourque for Backstrom Hit

It was predictable, it happened, and that was the end of it.

On January 3rd Rene Bourque elbowed Nicklas Backstrom in the head. Bourque served a five-game suspension (video of the hit & Brendan Shanahan explanation after the jump). A member of the Calgary Flames at the time, Bourque was part of the Michael Cammalleri trade and went from a season away from meeting the Washington Capitals again to days.

Bourque spoke about the anticipated fireworks on the Montreal Canadiens official site:

"I obviously don't feel good about what I did and I apologized for it, but I'm sure they'll be a few guys probably coming after me tomorrow," explained Bourque. "It's part of the game and I just need to be prepared for it. I know guys will be looking to make sure they finish their checks against me."

It took all of a minute before Matt Hendricks challenged Bourque. Knowing it was coming, there was no hesitation by Bourque, and they dropped the gloves. Bouque wears a shield, Hendricks does not, but there was no motion from Hendricks to remove helmets and Bourque didn't volunteer. The slightly bigger Bourque got the better of the fight against the more experienced Hendricks, and that was the end of it. Clean checks aside, there was no more targeting or retaliation against the Caps' current villain, even when they were up 3-0 in the second period. The game ended with the same score.

Videos added

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