Boston Bruins honey badger Brad Marchand will be sprung from his cage against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night, as his five-game suspension for clipping Vancouver Canucks defenseman Sami Salo ends.
What did he learn from his time in exile? Repentance? Pacifism? Nay … irritation.
Please recall the clip by Nick Foligno of the Ottawa Senators on Dion Phaneuf of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, which resulted in a 2-minute minor and an eventual Phaneuf'ing with fists. Marchand saw it, too, and told Joe Haggerty of CSN Boston that it was eerily similar to his clip — save for the fact that Foligno wasn't suspended for it.
From Marchand:
"I saw it. It looked very similar to mine. We were on the same position on the ice. [Foligno] got him in the same area at the same time, and the puck was roughly in the same area," said Marchand. "The only difference was that Phaneuf got up and he didn't get injured. I'd be very surprised if the league doesn't look at that very closely."
Haggs doesn't expect a hearing, and if that's the case he wonders if Marchand's "truly getting hosed by the league's sheriff department." Nose Face Killah is wondering the same:
"They seem to have set a precedent that hits like that are going to be taken care of. They're going to make sure guys are going to get punished for them.
"It might be a little unfair if they give me five games [for a clip] and a guy does it a couple of days later and gets nothing."
Here's the Marchand hit:
And here's the Foligno hit:
We still think Marchand got lower and, as Haggerty noted, as a little less to worry about with Sami Salo heading his way rather than Dion Phaneuf. There's no question the injury — and Marchand's previous run-ins with the NHL — was the basis for the suspension, however.