After eight seasons in the NHL without a fighting major to his name, Joe Corvo had an inkling this summer that he’d be getting in his first career fight this season. He'd been traded to Boston, and he knew being a member of the Bruins meant not taking any guff. If Corvo had any doubts about whether he actually would do it (560-plus games without a fight pretty much meant he had established himself as a non-fighter), they went away after his first game in Boston, a season-opening loss to the Flyers. 

“After the first game when I was driving out of the parking lot, I was signing some autographs and somebody came up to the window,” Corvo said Saturday. “They were like, 'Just fight one time and they'll love you here,' so I figured it was going to happen at some point.”

That point finally came Saturday night for Corvo, as he dropped the gloves with Toronto’s Joey Crabb at 14:45 of the third period. Nathan Horton had just scored to make the game 4-1 (the final score), and Corvo, after sending the puck into Toronto’s zone, felt he was blindsided by Crabb. The defensemen took exception to it -- "I had to stand up for myself there" -- so he did something about it.

“You can only take that so long, guys taking advantage of you, and guys knowing that you don't normally fight,” Corvo said after the win. “They're going to try to take advantage, so eventually you've got to do it. It just took seven years.”

Corvo, sporting some bumps and bruises on his face after the game, felt he was rusty since he had last fought prior to his days in the NHL.

"I got in maybe two in the AHL and a couple in the East Coast League. I was there for five games. It seemed like everyone wanted to fight me in those five games," he said with a laugh. "It's been a long time."

Given how long it had been, the defenseman said he would give himself a C for a grade in the fight, and that he might ask Shawn Thornton for a few pointers before he drops the gloves again. Even if he didn’t feel it was a great fight, he still felt it was a “welcome to Boston” moment of sorts, and his coach was happy to see it. 

“He wants to be part of this hockey club and he wants to be part of the identity and making sure he stands up for himself,” Claude Julien said, adding: "He could have easily walked away from that and let it be. But he’s seen our team, how we handle ourselves and how we solve our issues on our own. We don’t wait for anyone else to do it.”

Corvo gave the crowd just what that autograph-seeker on opening night had wanted, but he didn't think it would take until December for him to do something flashy for the fans. In his first season with the B’s, the offensive-minded defenseman has no goals -- something he has a problem with -- and 10 assists, so he was glad to give the sold-out Garden something good. 

“I mean, I'm not scoring goals, so I've got to do something to stand out, something positive,” Corvo said with an almost downtrodden chuckle before sarcastically adding, “I'll just fight my way out of this.”

It isn’t every day that you encounter a defenseman who uses goals to gauge how well he is playing. Zdeno Chara even said earlier in the day that while he likes scoring (the captain has five goals and 13 assists and is on pace for a career year), he knows his No. 1 job is to shut down opposing forwards. With that being said, Corvo’s game is based around his offensive contributions and getting shots on net, and he knows it.

Corvo, who is in the final year of his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, had 11 goals a season ago and has twice scored 14 goals. With his assists alone, he’s on pace for 34 points, which would make for a just-below-average season for him (he’s had between 37 and 48 points in each of his last five full seasons).

When the Bruins acquired Corvo as a replacement for Tomas Kaberle over the summer, one of the selling points was that he, unlike Kaberle, shoots the puck. Thus far, he has. Through 24 games, Corvo has 55 shots on goal, putting him on pace for 188, which would be three shy of his total from last season. That doesn’t include the shots that have missed the net, which have also left him frustrated. It seems very clear that Corvo isn’t satisfied with his play in a Bruins uniform, and it’s because he hasn’t been scoring.  

“Goal-wise,” he said after it was noted that he didn’t seem thrilled about his play. “I think I'm getting chances. I'm just, for some reason, just missing the net -- normally missing the net. I'm getting a lot of shots but nothing's going in.” 

Corvo says his inability to get the puck in the net has gotten to the point where he’s “past frustration,” but while he feel he may have more to offer, he can always look at the big picture and see that he and the Bruins are winning. In the grand scheme of things, Corvo will take that over goals any day.

“It is what it is, but I mean, with this run we're on, who cares?” Corvo said. “I don't care if I have 10 points the rest of the season. It doesn't matter.”