Marchand/By S. Bradley
Bruins winger Brad Marchand told the assembled media after practice today in Nashville that he was “very surprised” when he got to the rink and found out the NHL was looking into a possible punishment for his hit on R.J. Umberger Tuesday night in Columbus.
Marchand said there was no talk about his second-period hit to the Blue Jackets forward’s head in the locker room after the game, so he thought nothing about it. When he woke up this morning, teammates and his agent Wade Arnott told him the hit was all over NHL Network and that he had a hearing scheduled with the league over the phone for Thursday.
“Just because they’re trying to tighten up on head hits and stuff, there might be a reaction to it,” said Marchand.
As for the play, Marchand said he was trying to make contact with Umberger’s shoulder during the pursuit of the puck. It wasn’t until he saw the replay that he realized it was a head shot.
“He’s a big guy. For me to hit him in the head kind of tells you how low he was,” the 5-foot-9 Marchand said about the 6-2 Umberger’s bent-over skating stride on the play. “I think he was pretty off-balance. I didn’t hit him very hard and he fell pretty easy.
“I think where the puck was there wasn’t a whole lot I could’ve done to go around him.”
Umberger, who only briefly commented after the game, made his case for punishment of Marchand to the Columbus Post-Dispatch today:
“I saw the hit this morning. I felt like he led with the elbow. There are certain ways to play out there. Obviously I didn’t have control of the puck. It was free. He could have come and got it. He didn’t need to go at my head.
“It didn’t result in an injury, but it sure could have.”
We’ll find out what the NHL disciplinarians think tomorrow morning. Marchand practiced on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi today, but he might not get to join that combination against the Predators or for a couple more games after that.
He is a Bruin, why even bother wasting time we all know he will get nothing
Whatever Marchand’s intent or knowledge of the hit was, he’s terrible at talking to the media.
I wonder if Julien didn’t notice it either. There was no penalty called and there wasn’t really a big deal made out of it at the actual game. I would like to know from Julien if the coaching staff made note of it, or if the uproar this morning was a suprise to them.
I can honestly say when I watched the game last night I didn’t notice anything bad or dangerous about the hit and NESN didn’t make much mention of it.
I think after the fact it is pretty clear the hit was dangerous and honestly given the fact that Bruins could barely breathe on the Blue Jackets without drawing a penalty I am shocked that it didn’t draw one at the game. The refs must have had their attention somewhere else or had a different angle.
I do think the fact that Marchand is almost 6 inches shorter indicates that he likely was going for the shoulder hit, but Umberger was clearly bent over (as much as Umberger wanted to say he left his feet it is pretty clear Marchand was still on the ice when the contact was made).
I don’t think there is a lot of defense though for the from behind aspect of the hit.
I wish CJ did talk to him about it at the very least, as I would guess the coach saw how close they were to getting screwed because of a bonehead move. It’s true it wasn’t a hard hit, but unlike the crushing Chara gave paccioretty, this hit lacked clean mechanics, which is why I would think he may be suspended.