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The Leafs may have won the hockey game, but according to some hockey fans looks like it was Bruins captain and Halifax native Brad Marchand who got what he was “owed” Thursday night.
Marchand, 35, was the talk of game five after linesman Andrew Smith appeared to tackle the Boston captain, bringing him down to the ice after Marchand had scuffled with one of the Leafs’ players. “And the referee clobbers Marchand!” the Sportsnet commentators were quoted as saying. Marchand looked a little stunned and video of the moment shows him looking hilariously betrayed, before yelling at the official to get off him.
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Smith was also part of Thursday’s game, but it was the other linesman, Ryan Daisy, who took what looked to be a revenge shot from Marchand, when he shoved the official out of the way while trying to exit the ice.
Daisy looked surprised but quickly recovered, throwing a look at Marchand before moving on. “Not a good look!!!” tweeted former NHL referee Tim Peel. “That’s not hockey,” wrote X user @afond.
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There was no call on the play, but some fans pointed out that, per the NHL rulebook, Marchand should have been given at least a 10-game suspension. “This is kind of a big deal,” tweeted X user @DarioinDenver.
Chapter and verse: “Any player who deliberately applies physical force to an official in any manner … which physical force is applied without intent to injure, or who spits on an official, shall be automatically suspended for not less than 10 games.” If there’s intent to injure, that goes up to 20 games.
The games are more intense than most, with the perennial underdog Leafs struggling back from a 3-1 deficit to force game seven, which will take place Saturday night in Boston. Sharp-eyed commentators noticed that one of the referees at Thursday night’s game was Boston native Chris Rooney, meaning the Leafs might be up against a biased official.
It gets more complicated from there. Daisy, who took Marchand’s literal cold shoulder on Thursday night, hails from Mansfield, a town less than an hour’s drive south of Boston. Marchand, ironically, is from Halifax, while Smith, his linesman nemesis on Tuesday night, is a fellow Canadian, from Kitchener, Ont. What’s the penalty for cross-border checking?
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