Brad Marchand has a bit of a reputation in the NHL as being a dirty player. He certainly didn’t make people think otherwise with his antics last night against the Detroit Red Wings.
Halfway through the first period of last night’s division battle, the Red Wings worked on breaking the puck out and into the Bruins zone before the play was whistled offside. Niklas Kronwall, who was part of the play and made a late pass, stopped just before the blue line in an effort to keep the play going. After stopping, Marchand skated in behind Kronwall and kicked his right leg out causing the Wings defenseman to crash to the ice.
This is a particularly dangerous player for a couple of reasons. First, Kronwall is a veteran in the league who is pretty well known to have knee issues. Marchand used poor judgment when deciding to hit him in this way, and could have potentially caused even more damage to a defenseman who is already struggling to make it through the season. Second, taking out a players legs in that way could have caused them to fall backward and hit their head on the ice. There are enough concussion issues in the league as it is with players becoming bigger and faster, so we really don’t need plays like this in the game.
However dirty the play might have been, it’s not likely that we’ll see any disciplinary action from the NHL. The play unfolded in such a way that it was not quite a slew foot, but instead a trip which should have been penalized.
Fortunately for the struggling Red Wings, Kronwall was not seriously injured and he would go on to finish the game. Unfortunately, however, they would go on to lose to the Bruins 4-3 in overtime. The loss marked their third consecutive overtime loss.
