Lucic/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — Bruins head coach Claude Julien said this morning at TD Garden that tonight’s lineup against Montreal would be the most uncertain this year.
Well, things got a little more certain this afternoon without Julien doing anything.
The NHL announced a one-game suspension for Boston forward Milan Lucic, who hit Philadelphia forward Zac Rinaldo from behind in the second period Saturday. Lucic was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit. Now he’ll miss the Bruins’ date with the Canadiens.
Here’s NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan’s explanation:
There are still questions to be answered before the Bruins and Habs face off. Gregory Campbell says he’s ready to return to action, even with a fracture in his foot still bothering him. Rich Peverley didn’t practice yesterday and could use some more rest. Jordan Caron was recalled from Providence (AHL). We’ll have more answers closer to game time.
Whoever the ref of that Philly v. Bruins game is biased and just plain awful. Not only did he single out Marchand and warn him before the puck was dropped (unusual) as I have never even seen a ref do that to Matt Cooke or Sean Avery or anyone else, ever. Just ref the f’ing game and call the plays as they happen, leave the biased bs at home. He missed a bunch of calls early and it forced the players to ref the game themselves. Then the ref seeing he lost control of the game overreacts and starts booting everyone from the ice. Moron.
Lucic’s suspension was total BS. The logic that he should be suspended because he has been in the principle’s office too many times recently is a joke, what are they kindergartners? How about taking a look at the play itself, and realize that the refs overreacted because they had lost control of the game.
The refs missed a bunch of obvious calls, (blatant charging call on chia pet Hartnell when he ran Marchand was not called; amongst others). The suspension should be on the ref who was in charge of that game, he did not do his job and forced the players to do his job for him.