Bruins rookie drops Jason Spezza in his first NHL fight, during his first NHL game.

That is one hell of a way to get on the good side of your fellow teammates. 

On Friday night the Boston Bruins were facing off against the Dallas Stars but unfortunately for the Bruins organization there were doing so with an incredibly weak roster when compared to their normal line up. The Bruins were missing a staggering 6 defensemen on the blue line alone including Charlie McAvoy (head), Brandon Carlo(upper body), Kevan Miller (right hand), John Moore (lower body), Urho Vaakanainen (head) and of course Boston Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara(left knee) and you would fully expect that this many injuries would temper expectations considerably from the Bruins organization headed into this game.

In spite of their roster being entirely decimated by injuries the Bruins still somehow managed to walk away from that match up with a point in their back pocket, only losing 1 - 0 in overtime. Although there were a number of factors that played a role in the Bruins getting that point, a great deal of the credit should go to the two Bruins rookies who made their debut on Friday, defensemen Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril but it was Clifton who truly shined the brightest on hockey's biggest stage.

The 23 year old Clifton, a former Boston Bruins 5th round draft choice (133rd overall) in the 2013 National Hockey League Entry Draft had previously spent his first two seasons with the Bruins playing in the American Hockey League with the Bruins' AHL affiliate team the Providence Bruins. Friday marked his first career NHL game and he showed rather quickly that he was not at all prepared to back down from any potential challengers that got in his face.

Clifton was tested during the game by Dallas Stars' veteran forward Jason Spezza and not only did Clifton answer the challenged but he also seemed to get under the skin of the experienced veteran. That's because Spezza clearly let his frustration get the best of him when he went after Clifton in the final 10 minutes of the game's 3rd period. Spezza began by shoving the rookie on the side of the Stars net and quickly followed that up with what looked like a rather hard slash to the leg. Clifton was having none of it though and immediately dropped his gloves and made short work of Jason Spezza.

[pub]