BOSTON -- Words flew like fists between the Bruins and Canadiens on Friday as Montreal's Richard Zednik lay in a hospital with a severe concussion while Boston's Kyle McLaren defended the hit that put him there.

The verbal shots came fast and both teams said Saturday's fifth game of their NHL playoff series would be hard-hitting. But the Canadiens, while maintaining McLaren's hit was a cheap shot, didn't say they would retaliate.

They did call up 6-foot-5, 221-pound Matt O'Dette from Quebec of the AHL where he had 136 penalties and eight points in 48 games this season.

"Anything I can do to help out, I'm willing to do," he said. "If I can finish checks and just try to be a physical presence, that's basically all my game is."

With McLaren suspended by the NHL for at least one game, Boston goal-scoring leader Bill Guerin could become a target.

"I'm a big boy," Guerin said. "I can handle myself."

Montreal defenseman Craig Rivet said, "we're going to have to be a little harder, I think, on their best players (but) it doesn't have to be dirty."

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday the league spoke to both teams and they understand that "any on-ice threat coming to reality" would be inappropriate.

"It's not left to the individual clubs to seek justice," Bettman said. "That's our job, and the clubs know that."

Zednik had two goals in Thursday's 5-2 loss in Montreal that tied the series 2-2. He shares the NHL playoff lead with four goals and eight points, but the second concussion of his career will sideline him for at least the rest of the best-of-seven series, Canadiens team doctor David Mulder said.

Immediately after the game, in which players fought before and after Zednik's injury, Montreal coach Michel Therrien said, "If they try to go after our best players ... we have no choice. We'll go after theirs."

When asked after Friday's practice in Boston whether the Canadiens have to retaliate, all he said was, "we have to play hard."

Meanwhile, the teams differed on the punishment McLaren should receive.

The NHL suspended him automatically Friday for at least one game with a hearing to be held Saturday. The suspension will not be lifted until a post-hearing decision is made.

Canadiens general manager Andre Savard, still angry Friday, wants a severe suspension and said the hit was worse than the one by Tie Domi of Toronto on Scott Niedermayer of New Jersey with 20 seconds left in Game 4 last season.

Domi was suspended for eight games for that hit, which occurred behind the play. McLaren was trying to stop Zednik, who had the puck.

"I don't think a suspension is warranted because there's no intent" to injure, said Bruins general manager Mike O'Connell, a former NHL defenseman. "It wasn't someone coming out of the blue from nowhere to hit a guy who was unsuspecting so that's a difference between what Domi did and this. There's none of that. This was a hockey play."

Boston led 5-2 when the 6-foot Zednik sped up the right side into Boston's zone. His head was down when the 6-4 McLaren skated a few strides toward him. McLaren made contact with the upper part of his left arm with 1:18 left in the game. Zednik dropped to the ice and lay unconscious for five minutes.

The Canadiens said McLaren, who has no record of dirty hits in his seven NHL seasons, elbowed Zednik. McLaren received a match penalty.

Zednik was carried off on a stretcher and is expected to remain in Montreal General Hospital at least through Saturday. An examination showed a concussion, a broken nose and a laceration under the right eye.

The fact that Zednik was speeding up as he hit a 230-pound player who is four inches taller contributed to the force and placement of McLaren's arm.

"He was unconscious and our concern was that he wasn't breathing initially," said Mulder, who rushed onto the ice. "But he began to breathe by the time I got out there."

He said Zednik didn't remember the hit and had no more than a foggy recollection of the game.

"I'm not out there to hurt anybody and I wish him the best and I'm very sorry he got hurt," McLaren said, "It's a split-second thing.

"I didn't know, to be honest, who it was coming down one-on-one. I was just trying to hit him and that's it," he said. "I wasn't trying to really hit him hard."

The Canadiens lost their top scorer at least for the series and the Bruins lost McLaren for at least one game.

"If we dwell on this any longer it's going to take our focus away from the game at hand and the task at hand, which is beating Montreal in the first round," McLaren said.

Beating, not beating up.

"We have to control our composure," Therrien said. "Yesterday, everybody was upset. There were a lot of different emotions. Yes, we're still upset. But, on the other hand, this is a thing that is going to motivate our team."