With their long-standing rivalry, any Bruins-Canadiens matchup is always a tough battle.

It was worse for Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who found himself on the receiving end of an awkward hit by Montreal’s Max Pacioretty.

Referee Dave Jackson’s arm went up immediately.  Pacioretty was given a two-minute minor for boarding.

Boychuk remained on the ice for nearly ten minutes before being taken off on a stretcher and brought to the hospital for evaluation.

Thankfully, early indications were that the injury wasn’t severe.  Boychuk was okay to travel with the club.

“He was cleared to fly back with us,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said, as reported by ESPN. “He’s still obviously injured. We don’t know the severity of it and I don’t know all the details, but it was an injury serious enough to bring him to the hospital. Definitely, it’s going to be a little while before he’s good to go. I don’t know exactly how much time, but the good news is he’s coming back with us tonight and he’ll be reassessed by our doctors back in Boston.”

Scary moment for sure.  Suspendable?  Probably not.  Bruins coach Claude Julien agrees.

“I’m being honest, I don’t think it was more than that. I think it’s probably the way he went into the boards that did most of the damage. I don’t think it was the severity of the hit.”

So did Bruins Daily’s Anthony Travalgia:

Although Pacioretty was penalized for the hit, the general census in the Bruins dressing room after the game was that the hit was not dirty, or even intentional, and was just some bad luck on the side of Boychuk.

“Yeah you know I guess it was deserving of a penalty and that’s what it was called” said Campbell who scored his second goal of the season Thursday night.

“Things happen fast and Johnny was going in for the puck. I don’t think there was any intent, I’m almost positive, he’s a clean player and it’s unfortunate that things happen and like I said things happen quickly. So sometimes you put yourselves in those positions where it’s hard to kind of stop yourself and stop the momentum you have going into the play there.”