For a guy who claims to have changed his game, old habits sure do take hold often for Brad Marchand. Marchand has been suspended an NHL record 8 times, and if George Parros has any working brain cells left, his 9th is coming.
During Monday night's game between the Bruins and Blue Jackets, Jackets defender Andrew Peeke was pinching down the boards when Marchand caught him with a hard, high hit. Marchand both left his feet and made head contact, leaving Peeke laying face down on the ice while Jake DeBrusk took off the other way on a breakaway and scored. Marchand was not penalized on the play, because of course he wasn't.
Marchand has already been suspended twice this season, 3 games for slew-footing Canucks defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson and again for 6 games for sucker punching and high sticking Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry.
One would think that the loss of playing time, if not the loss of a considerable amount of his salary would convince Marchand to stop with the dangerous and dirty plays he's become notorious for. For some reason, the message isn't getting through. The sad part of it is that Marchand is a terrific hockey player without these antics.
