It’s no secret that Boston Bruins’ forward Brad Marchand is a repeat offender when it comes to suspensions in the NHL. Marchand is one of those players who you’d love to have but hate to play against. For the most part of the 2017-2018 season,
Marchand has cleaned up his act. But, that all changed last night as Marchand delivered an elbow to New Jersey Devils’ forward Marcus Johansson.
Late in the third period, Marchand skated down the right side of Devils’ goaltender Ken Appleby. With the puck, Marchand fired a shot into the chest of Appleby. Marchand was in search for a second attempt off the rebound, but Appleby was able to corral the puck before a Bruins’ stick could find it.
Trailing behind the shot was Johansson. After the initial shot, Marchand cut in front of the crease and in front of Johansson. Marchand seemed to have clipped the netminder and tripped. In the process, Marchand’s right elbow caught Johansson right in the face.
“Don’t know what happened”
When you first see the play develop and finish it looks as if it’s just an unfortunate collision. But on the reverse replay, you clearly see Marchand stick out his right elbow to catch Johansson. No call was made on the play (which would have been huge as the Devils were already on the PP and trailing late).
Marchand had this to say after the game:
“What happened? I don’t know. He got hurt. I don’t know what happened…I have no idea what happened,” Marchand told Joe Haggerty. “I took a shot and I tumbled down and he was hurt. So I don’t know what happened there, but hopefully, he’s okay”, Marchand said according to TSN.
As mentioned before, Marchand is a repeat offender and I would be shocked if he is not suspended for his actions. The second angle clearly shows the intent of Marchand and should be an easy case for George Parros and the Department of Player Safety.
So, what does Marchand deserve? Two, three, ten games? Fines are chump change to these players and I don’t believe a monetary lesson would affect Marchand too much, as he has already been fined heavily before. Marchand has been fined or suspended seven times in his career.
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