BOSTON — The nasty punch Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand took from the Florida Panthers' Sam Bennett on Thursday morning was “part of the game, definitely part of playoff hockey.” Brad Marchand wasn't just being conciliatory when he told reporters.
Marchand agreed, saying Bennett was a “one shot” and limiting his comments to expressing solidarity with outraged Bruins fans.
But whether intentionally or not, he pulled back the curtain just a little to reveal what it's like inside the world of professional athletes.
Don't get me wrong here. There's some bad blood between the Bruins and Panthers, and that bad blood is clear as a result of Bennett's hit on Marchand in the first period of Game 3 of this Eastern Conference semifinal series. Some of it bubbled to the surface.
Bennett was not punished for the punch, as the NHL Office of Player Safety transferred the matter to the NHL's Department of Inspection. Meanwhile, Marchand was said to have suffered an “upper body injury” and the Bruins missed the third period of Game 3 and all of Games 4 and 5.
The Bruins, who trail 3-2 in the series, hope to have Marchand back on the ice for Game 6 on Friday night at TD Garden. If so, the Garden public will roar with anticipation if he and Bennett ever get within 30 feet of each other. Perhaps the two will work out the problem. Maybe that will happen in Game 7 on Sunday. Or next season.
Or never. Fans, and sometimes the media, view opposing players as follows: enemy, but not necessarily. In many ways, they have more in common with each other than the fans who root for them.They are professional hockey playerand that makes them stand out from everyone else.
This is not to say that hockey players don't hold grudges and settle scores. Of course it is.
Consider the game between the Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins on December 7, 2013. In this game, Boston executive Sean Thornton reached into the scrum and delivered a sucker punch to Brooks Orpik in retaliation for Orpik's hit on Loui Eriksson earlier in the game. Orpik was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. Thornton was suspended.
I mention it here not just to point out that nasty things happen in hockey, but to point out that Thornton and Orpik knew their stuff well. According to Flute Shinzawa, then a beat writer for the Boston Globe, he remembers reading Thornton's words. “I feel terrible,” he reportedly said. “That result was not what I intended. I know Brooksy…I skated with him over the summer and during the lockout period. I emailed him several times. .”
When Marchand spoke to reporters Thursday morning, there were several facts in his words: “(Bennett) is playing hard,” he said. “He's a very physical player and a great player for the group. I think he got away with it one shot. But I'm not going to complain. S— happens. It happens, especially in playoff hockey. I've been on the other side of a lot of plays. I think he got away with one. But it's part of the game, definitely part of playoff hockey.”
Marchand also acknowledged this. But such things happen. So I'm not going to sit here and complain. it's part of the game. Yeah, I think he got away with one shot. But it is what it is. ”
Marchand, 36, has been a Bruin since making his NHL debut on Oct. 28, 2009, assisting on Michael Ryder's goal in a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators at the Garden. are doing. Bennett, 27, broke out with the Calgary Flames in 2015 and has been with the Panthers since being acquired by the Panthers on April 12, 2021. Both are veteran players who have been cited for dirty tricks before.
Marchand said three times Thursday that Bennett “made it.”
And, well, Bennett got away with it. However, it took a while for all camera angles to be presented as evidence, and it was too late to be useful in NHL court.
In any case, Marchand's explanation of what happened suggested that this was all purely business. A cynic might argue that Marchand didn't have the choice to stay the course he is, lest he be dismissed as a hypocrite, but that seems too simplistic to me. Marchand simply laid out the facts, effectively making it seem like he was a neutral observer.
A long time ago, when I was covering minor league hockey, there was a game in which two players were playing hockey in front of the team's bench. As it happened, they were fighting right in front of the backup goalie, who took it upon himself to pull down his opponent's sweater, leaving his teammate vulnerable to a few punches. However, the opposing starting goaltender realized this was happening from his own crease and skated to relief, thereby sparking a scuffle that cleared the bench.
I mention this in preparation for what I saw by the bus after the game. As the two goaltenders looked at each other, the starting goaltender yelled to the reserve goaltender, who was grabbing his sweater, “Hey, what are you doing?” They stood there for about five minutes, talking and laughing. That was it.
It may also be dirty. Sometimes it's all business. In some cases, I think it's both.
(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
