During the off-season, the Boston Bruins signed defenseman Nikita Zadorov to a six-year, $30 million contract. With the Bruins needing an upgrade on the left side of their defense and more overall toughness, it made sense that the Bruins brought him in.

Bruins' change of coach from Jim Montgomery to interim bench boss Joe Sacco leads bruising Zadorov to step up own game and seek the same from teammates.

Nikita Zadorov is embracing the Bruins’ reset. “I thought we were playing soft the first 20 games,” said the big defenseman

As per Elliotte Friedman in his latest 32 Thoughts column, “Weird idea that may only make sense to me: Nikita Zadorov back to Vancouver. No idea if even possible, or if anyone would want it, but he was a good fit and the Canucks miss him.

Killing penalties is Nikita Zadorov‘s business. And business is good. The 6-foot-6, 248-pound defenseman got to show off his special team’s side, Thursday night at TD Garden. The rugged Russian put his formidable frame to good use,