NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has decided to uphold the six-game suspension of Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, releasing a 13-page ruling today. Marchand can now choose to appeal to a neutral arbitrator, though since he has already served four of the six games and will have finished the suspension by Monday, it would essentially only be to recoup some of the salary he has lost in this process.
In his ruling, Bettman states:
Finally, in reaching my conclusions I have given careful consideration to Mr. Marchand’s testimony concerning his efforts to control his emotions in order to excel as an impact player who plays aggressively, but within the rules. I believe that he has already made significant strides towards achieving this goal. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Marchand’s behavior and lack of judgment in respect of these incidents did not meet acceptable NHL standards. He created a distraction which reflected poorly on himself, on his team and on the League as a whole, and as such, I find he also deserves the penalty he received. Having said that, I encourage Mr. Marchand to reflect on this experience and to use it positively in furtherance of his efforts to refine and improve his on-ice image and game for everyone’s benefit.
In their defense of Marchand, the NHLPA tried to compare this incident to one in 2019 when Milan Lucic was given a two-game suspension for punching Kole Sherwood, one in 2019 when Joe Thornton was not given any supplementary discipline for punching Petr Mrazek, and one in 2019 when Radko Gudas received a two-game suspension for high-sticking Nikita Kucherov. All three were deconstructed by Bettman, with Marchand’s lengthy disciplinary history being one of the major factors to prove they were dissimilar.
Notably, it also explains that Marchand was being suspended for both the punch and the high-stick, leading to the six-game ban when combined with his history. The Bruins forward has now been suspended eight times and fined four times for physical fouls in his NHL career. Bettman explains just how serious this history is:
No active player has been suspended more times than Mr. Marchand; this is his eighth suspension. In addition, he has been fined four times for physical fouls. Although the on-ice penalty calls that resulted in supplementary discipline have varied in their specifics, all have involved serious violations, including elbowing, slew footing, clipping, roughing, spearing, cross-checking and (now) high sticking. It is, to say the least, an unenviable record. And (again), to make matters worse, Mr. Marchand’s most recent suspension prior to this one occurred less than three months ago, when he was suspended for three games for slew footing Vancouver Canucks player Oliver Ekman-Larsson on November 28, 2021.
An appeal to a neutral arbitrator would almost certainly take more than three days, meaning Marchand will be out for the next two matches regardless of what happens next. If he does go through with it and it is eventually reduced, it would provide the Bruins forward with two benefits. One, he would win back some of the money he has forfeited with this suspension, and two, the suspension would–while still on his record–appear as a shorter sentence.
Good, stop being such an idiot. The NHL does not want game ending brawls. His actions could have lead to a lot worse, which is why this should stand. If you Wana fight than fight someone who actually does it. Rat.
It’s a reasonable suspension if other far more dangerous players were suspended accordingly. Not sure how a jerk move where no one was hurt and he was given a game misconduct gets so many more games than Tom Wilson got last year against the rangers where he attempted and succeeded at severely injuring another player. Makes no sense.
deal with it, Bradly….
Like I said before. If it looks like a Rat, acts like a Rat, it IS a Rat! Gnaw on that!
I have no problem with the suspension, he has to stop doing crazy sh-t on the ice.
What frustrates me, maybe others is the league has different standards for different players.
How did Mackinnon not get a suspension for his blatant shoulder to the head of a player who never touched the puck from blue line to blue line??
That player I’m sure is out for awhile.
Because he’s a star – you hear nothing from player safety, last year Ovi spears to the privates and again crickets is all you hear.
I’m glad they upheld it too. Brad has so much talent and when he executes, it’s a thing of beauty. I’m a Hawks fan, but I love the game first and foremost. A great scoring touch, even if it’s against my team, is something that I still appreciate.
Yet, he wastes that god-given talent on immature goon antics that, by and large, are completely unwarranted and set his team back. I also don’t like that he’s called a rat. Rats are smart, they’re survivors. There’s nothing remotely intelligent about how he constantly puts himself before the team. Being a pest is acceptable, but there’s a way to go about it and licking guys and delivering dirty hits turns things up to 11. Being at a 4 or 5 would actually help his team.
With that being said, I definitely agree with the complete inconsistency of things. It boggles my mind that Trouba didn’t get nailed to the wall by the DoPS for nasty head shots to two players, in two consecutive games!! Then again, this IS an organization whose title is complete hypocrisy. They don’t give a damn about player safety at all, because if they did, consistency wouldn’t be so much of a question. It would be the expectation. Though, the fact that it mostly consists of former goons tells us all that we need to know. I shouldn’t even say “former” honestly, because they’re STILL goons.
Marchand got what he deserved for what he did. He was lucky that he did not get more games considering his history. Now the league still sucks at consistency. Wilson should have received a double digit game suspension form his actions against the Rangers yet gets a slap on the wrist. Same with other players like McKinnon as already mentions. Things have not changed since Mario Lemieux called the NHL a garage league 30 years ago.
That entire rangers incident was overblown by lemmings on Twitter. Panerin shouldn’t have fought someone twice his size. You see the scuffle that led to that every night. No reason for a double digit suspension.
I am only going by the replay. I don’t even have twitter. First Wilson takes Buchnevich to the ice face first then punches him in the back of the head while his face is still planted on the ice. Then after Panarin had the nerve to pull Wilson off of Strome as he was hitting him while he was being held to the ice by another Caps player. Wilson pulls of Panarin’s helmet and pulls his helmetless head to the ice hitting his head on the ice. That was my first instinct to think multiple games into the double digits when I saw the replays last May. Same reasoning as with Marchand, the past history.
Fair enough. I can admit bias. Just thought it was overblown some
Transport him back to 1974, so he can experience what opposing players used to do guys who pulled his garbage.