Brad Marchand did not hold back when addressing his six-game suspension for roughing/high-sticking Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry.
The Boston Bruins winger was banned after an incident late in Tuesday’s game between the Bruins and Penguins, where Marchand punched Jarry in the head and then, while being escorted off the ice by an official, struck Jarry in the mask with the end of his stick.
“Was it stupid? Of course, it was stupid. I’m not denying that,” Marchand said on Friday. “I absolutely should not have done it. But [was it] suspension-worthy? I don’t think so.”
The NHL’s department of player safety disagreed, and on Wednesday handed Marchand the eighth — and longest — suspension on his career. Marchand will forfeit $448,170.72 in salary on this occasion and has lost over $1.4 million over the course of his various bans. He had previously been levied two five-game suspensions and was already suspended three games earlier this season for slew-footing Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Marchand sees that suspension in particular as bleeding unnecessarily into his current one, the six-game-length of which he called “very, very hefty.”
“[Those] plays were not going to injure Jarry,” Marchand said of his actions. “No potential injury on that play. He was very well-protected. The fact that it’s six games is based on history, not on the play. We believe the last suspension was very hefty when I got three games. It should have been one, based on the fact that I’ve turned my game around and become a pretty good player in this league. But you’re not going to escape the history part of it, which ultimately set me up for this [suspension].”
The NHLPA filed an appeal of the suspension on Marchand’s behalf Friday afternoon.
But at the same time, Marchand has no intention of altering his game.
“I’m not going to justify that what I did was right,” he said. “But this was a very, very deep suspension for these actions. I’m an emotional guy, I always have been. That part of me will never change. I’ll never want it to change because that’s what makes me the player I am. It’s just making sure it’s reined in.”
