Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Did Brad Marchand get down with his bad self again on clipping penalty? (VIDEO)

At the end of the second period of the Boston Bruins' game at the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night, Alexei Emelin passed the puck up the boards and then braced himself for a hit from the incoming Brad Marchand.

Only Marchand didn't connect at the shoulders; he got his Brad Marchand on and came in low. Too low in the eyes of the officials, who gave him a clipping minor for this hit:

Here's the RDS feed. Emelin returned to play in the third period.

While it wasn't the magnitude of the hit on Sami Salo that resulted in a 5-game suspension for Marchand on Jan. 9, one can't help but wonder if the NHL would view this as (a) "a predatory, low hit delivered intentionally" — this isn't the first time these two have met on the ice — and/or (b) an example of a player not having learned anything from the supplemental discipline process one month earlier.

To that last part, remember what Marchand said before the Salo suspension: "If that's an illegal hit, I'll take that out of my game." So … stop clipping people then, m'kay?



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