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Bruins don’t make a big deal out of Ference suspension

Andrew Ference

When Boston’s Brad Marchand was suspended five games for clipping Sami Salo, the Bruins openly voiced their displeasure with the league’s ruling – criticism the NHL probably wasn’t thrilled to receive in the wake of such a high-profile game.

Which brings us to yesterday, when Andrew Ference was suspended three games for running Ryan McDonagh into the end boards. Oddly enough, the club was a little more reserved in its appraisal of the decision.

Weird, right?

Yeah, probably not.

“You respect what [the NHL] is trying to do and you move on,” said coach Claude Julien about the Ference ruling.

Ference, meanwhile, offered a similar response, as reported by CSNNE.com.

“At the end of the day it’s [Shanahan’s] call and you just deal with it,” Ference said. “I gave my full opinion with him. I was going extremely fast trying to win a race to the puck. Once I realized that the race to the puck was lost, I changed course and tried to create a pin situation where you can battle for the puck. But at the initial contact of the pin he loses his balance to the extreme and goes in pretty hard.”

OK, so maybe the Bruins felt they had more reason to question the Marchand suspension – especially one that involved the “propaganda”-spewing Canucks – but it’s clear the Bruins want to downplay the Ference suspension, even if they disagree with it.

And the NHL probably appreciates that.