As one of the NHL’s preeminent pests, it’s no surprise that Brad Marchand had something to say about his trips on Anton Stralman and Niklas Kronwall.
Also not surprising: his explanation probably won’t make his critics happy.
“I don’t know if you can see the whole play, but you can see the whole time that I’m watching the puck. I really didn’t even know that [Stralman] was there until we collided, so it was just kind of a hockey play,” Marchand said, via CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty. “I think last night the social media kind of blows things up more than it would normally be. At the same time with what happened with [Kronwall] it gets blown up a little bit too.”
Hmm, maybe people on social media didn’t get the entire picture thanks to the GIF of the Stralman trip. Here’s video that provides greater context:
The NHL hasn’t contacted Marchand about the trip on Stralman, while the Bruins winger received a $10K fine for the incident with Kronwall.
Instead of receiving supplemental discipline on Wednesday, Marchand was named the NHL’s second star for the month of January.
They’ll be plenty of eyes on Marchand tonight, as his Bruins face the Washington Capitals to kick off NBCSN’s doubleheader.
For more from Marchand, check out that CSNNE.com article.