Brad Marchand Suspended: Bruins General Manager Disagrees with the Ruling

Brad Marchand has been suspended five games for his hit on Sami Salo. The Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli just voiced his displeasure in the ruling. Chiarelli states,

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"While we respect the process that the Department of Player Safety took to reach their decision regarding Brad’s hit on Sami Salo, we are very disappointed by their ruling.

"While we understand that the Department of Safety is an evolving entity, it is frustrating that there are clear comparable situations that have not been penalized or sanctioned in the past. 

"It is equally disappointing that Brad sought the counsel of the Department this past Fall for an explanation and clarification regarding this type of scenario so as to adjust his game if necessary. He was advised that such an incident was not sanctionable if he was protecting his own safety.

"Given our feeling that Brad was indeed protecting himself and certainly did not clip the player as he contacted the player nowhere near the knee or quadricep, today’s ruling is not consistent with what the Department of Player Safety communicated to Brad."

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I mean, the NHL misses some calls from time to time, but Chiarelli is really not making sense here. While there may be comparable situations, if you watch the explanation video from Shanahan he explains it in great detail.

There is no way that Marchand was defending himself. He clearly took an earlier hit from Salo. Salo was skating towards Marchand in a complete non-threatening manner. There was not some out of the blue hit. There was a whole sequence of events that led up to the illegal hit.

In Marchand's case, he was hit legally by Salo, Marchand took offense to the hit when he jabbed at Salo and then when Salo reproached Marchand he was taken out with a dangerous low hit. Many fans and analysts complain about the lack of calls against the Boston Bruins so this statement will not sit well now that some action is taken.

It is one thing if this was Marchand's first illegal act, but he is a repeat offender and he deserved to be suspended.

Tom Urtz, Jr. is an NHL featured columnist. For NHL news, updates and alerts about players: