It may not have been his first time dropping the gloves, but it’s 100 percent safe to say that David Krejci is not a noted enforcer.

The Bruins want to keep it that way after he engaged in his first fist-a-cuffs in seven years Thursday night during the second to last preseason game against the Flyers.

But the preseason can be a funny thing sometimes. For those competing for an open roster spot, it can benefit a player to show that he’s willing to do whatever he takes to capitalize on their opportunity.

That wasn’t the case for Krejci nor his fellow combatant Nolan Patrick, who was taken second overall in June’s Entry Draft.

“It just kind of happened,” Krejci, who also tallied the Bruins’ only goal in the 5-1 loss to the Flyers, said about his fight with Patrick. “It was a scrum and [people] shoving, so it was one of those things that kind of happened. I felt like it was time [to drop the gloves] and that’s exactly what happened.”

Nolan Patrick officially becomes a Philadelphia Flyer with a fight in a preseason game pic.twitter.com/PJ6SudopF1

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) September 29, 2017

One has to go back six years to find Krejci’s last fight – also in the preseason – against former Islanders prospect Justin DiBenedetto. The Czech center only has two official fights under his belt (via hockeyfights.com). Both of those bouts came in the 2010-11 season versus former Canadiens forwards Michael Cammalleri and Benoit Pouliot.

Krejci, who suffered a few stitches following his fight with Patrick, is obviously inexperienced in dropping the gloves. David Backes is not. The former Blues captain was quite impressed with Krejci sticking up for his fellow Bruins teammates during their tough night in Philly where nothing seemed to be going their way.

“I think he did just fine,” Backes said of Krejci. “The visor comes down and he gets a little nick on his nose, but he holds his own. Maybe in the preseason, you try to dial it back a little bit, but I fought last preseason and it’s a good way to spark yourself and get yourself going and he scores a goal later in the game. Maybe he’s not known for that sort of aggression, but I loved to see it, and it sends a message to everybody that we’re all accountable, and we needed a little bit of a spark at that time.”

Any Bruins fan holding their breath during Krejci’s fight did it for a good reason. Though he played in all 82 regular season games for the first time since the 2008-09 season, Krejci’s injury history has gotten the worst of him at certain points, most notably last postseason where he missed three of the team’s six games against the Ottawa Senators.

In any event, Krejci’s fight was quite the development.

“I was a little surprised to see it,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said.

“I mean preseason, there used to be a fight every period minimum, and now you hardly see any involved [in fights], and I didn’t expect Krejci to be in there, nor did I expect Nolan Patrick. I know that’s not a part of his game either, and I don’t think they’ll be fighting again this year; I don’t mean [against] each other, I mean in general. But it happened, and it happened quick.”

Still, it doesn’t mean that Cassidy was holding his breath in the City of Brotherly Love. Or did he?

“I’ve seen David fight over the years and he handled himself,” Cassidy added about Krejci vs. Patrick. “That’s the one thing where I didn’t hold my breath, because he did okay [in the past] and he did okay [against Patrick].”

He did alright, but don’t expect a fighting encore from Krejci anytime soon. Cassidy and company need him to be healthy, after all.