BOSTON – Brad Marchand is carrying the Bruins right now with Patrice Bergeron out with a fractured right foot, so he doesn’t have the time or the inclination to worry about the $2,000 he was fined by the NHL on Friday for embellishment.
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Marchand has five goals and nine points in the five games since Bergeron went down and the Bruins have gone 5-0-0 while watching Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy and David Backes all get subtracted from the lineup. Within the five game-winning streak, Marchand also had a play behind the Pittsburgh net where he was whistled for embellishment in the March 1 win over the Penguins. Both Marchand and Olli Maatta were whistled for off-setting penalties, and that was the play where he was ultimately fined by the NHL.
Marchand was given a warning from NHL Hockey Operations back in the Nov. 29 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the defiant B’s agitator said the $2,000 fine from the league wasn’t going to change anything he was doing on the ice.
“That [$2,000] hit is very small and minor. It’s the last thing I’m going to worry about,” said Marchand, when asked if the fine will change the way he plays. “I don’t care about this. It’s a joke. It’s a small amount of money and pretty stupid. But it is what it is.t
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“It’s very easy to dictate somebody saying I fell a certain way. How are they going to tell how a guy is balanced on a certain area of the ice? When sticks are between your feet and your being pushed at different angles, they forget how to play the game pretty quickly. They go from being players to being management and running the league pretty quickly, and they forget what it’s like to play. But it is what it is.”
Boston Bruins
If Marchand were to be cited three more times for embellishment by the NHL this season, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy would also begin getting fined by the league as well. The B’s coach sounded like that was a road he wasn’t interested in going down. Marchand derisively called it “the new NHL”, but Cassidy has taken a much more detached approach to any treatment, good or bad, that the Bruins were receiving from the league.
“They have their guidelines or whatever they use to make their decisions, and generally you abide by them and move along,” said Cassidy. “We’ll talk to Brad about it, but I’m sure he’s aware that they’re on to him, for lack of a better term. Hopefully, this will be the last one for him.
“The coach does get [a fine] eventually, and the kids need to go to college...so I will have a chat with him.”
With less than a month to go in the NHL regular season, it’s doubtful that Marchand is going to be racking up too many more embellishment calls ahead of the playoffs. But it also doesn’t sound much like No. 63 cares if it does go down that way either as he’s got bigger fish to fry carrying a playoff-bound team on his shoulders as he readies for the postseason.