BOSTON — As Nikita Zadorov walked through the Bruins dressing room to begin his postgame session with the media after Saturday’s win, the big defenseman smiled and said:
“Where’s my beer?”
He knew what was coming.
Between the third and fourth quarter of the Celtics’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, the TD Garden scoreboard camera settled on Zadorov and Bruins teammate David Pastrnak sitting together in the front row.
With the camera on him, Zadorov grabbed his beer, which appeared to be a least half full, and drained it as the crowd roaded it’s approval.
Pastrnak watched and laughed, pointing at his teammate and smiling. When Zadorov was done he held his right arm up in triumph with his hand doing the three-finger sign language sign for “I love you.”
Chugging beer on camera at a sporting event has become a bit of a tradition for athletes in Boston. Patriots offensive lineman David Andrews famously chugged a beer on the jumbotron at a Bruins playoff game, following a trend Julian Edelman has started.
Zadorov sounded a little proud and a little sheepish.
“Ive went to 15 games probably and the camera was never on me, but one time I go with Pasta and they put a camera on me. I felt like I had to do it,” he said. “It was a cool moment. You have to have a guilty game once in a while and play good. I thought I did pretty good today.”
Zadorov played 25 shifts of 20:14. He had a penalty as was plus-3.