Brad Marchand is a Boston Bruins legend and one of the most controversial players in modern hockey. He’s always been a talented player, known for his offensive contribution and incredible work ethic.
Marchand is a warrior who would do almost anything to win and help out his teammates. But over the years, Marchand has been in the spotlight for the wrong reason and for his antics.
He’s been ranked first as the league’s biggest rat in several player surveys over the years, and during the 2021-22 season, he became the most suspended player in NHL history, in terms of individual suspensions.
Licking his opponents, playing dirty and hard, and cheapshots, Marchand has done pretty much it all. And from an early age, Marchand took on the role of a pest on the ice.
A piece for The Athletic revealed that Marchand, aged 14, got into a fight with an opponent. Marchand skated away from the scrum, but later in the game, the same opponent ran Marchand over from behind.
Luckily for the opponent, he wore a cage because what happened next was absolutely brutal.
”Marshy did a full 180,” Andrew Bodnarchuk, a teammate to Marchand at the time, recalled. “Baseball swing right at the guy’s melon.”
Marchand was suspended for three games, but the baseball swing earned him a not-so-flattering nickname that stuck around for a while: The Tomahawk.
