An already bad night for the Bruins got worse in the final minute of Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Penguins when Brad Marchand lost his cool and took two shots at Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry’s head.
On a night when news broke that Tuukka Rask is expected to end his comeback attempt and Patrice Bergeron left the game with an upper-body injury after an awkward fall, the Bruins may now have to deal with another Marchand suspension as well.
The incident came with just 24 seconds left in the game. Jarry and Marchand appeared to exchange words after the whistle, and then Marchand leaned in and threw a punch at Jarry, catching him on the side of his helmet. Then as Marchand was being dragged away by a linesman, he went back at Jarry with his stick and jabbed him in the mask.
Earlier in the shift, Jarry had taken a swipe at Charlie Coyle with his stick. There was also an incident in the second period when Marchand whacked a puck off Jarry’s stick as Jarry was trying to give a puck to a Penguins fan. That incident seemed to be relatively harmless at the time, but Jarry didn’t look too happy after it.
It’s unclear if any or all of those things were related to what happened at the end of the game, or if Marchand was reacting only to whatever Jarry said in that moment. Either way, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game that Marchand needed to control his emotions in that situation.
“I don’t know, that happened quick. Honestly, lack of discipline obviously on Brad’s part in that situation,” Cassidy said. “I just watched the replay at the end. It looks like some words were exchanged. I don’t know if there was an incident at the end of the second period. I was in the room, so I don’t know. Someone said that. Still, you have to have better discipline at the end of the day. Brad’s a leader on our team, and he needs to control his emotions in that situation.”
Jarry himself had a surprisingly tame reaction when asked about what Marchand did.
“I think it’s just the heat of the moment,” Jarry said. “I think everyone’s battling hard out there. … It’s part of the game. It just stays on the ice.”
Jarry didn’t shed any light on what he said to Marchand, and Marchand wasn’t made available to the media after the game. So that part of the equation will remain a mystery for the time being.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan and forward Danton Heinen, who scored a pair of goals against his former team in the Pittsburgh win, offered brief reactions.
“Obviously emotions got carried away there at the end,” Sullivan said. “I didn’t see some of it, quite honestly, but obviously that’s not anything that we can control. So we’re not that focused on it.”
“No one likes to see that,” Heinen said. “We’ll see what the league has to say.”
Indeed, we will. Marchand was assessed a match penalty on the play, which carries with it an automatic one-game suspension, subject to review by the league. The incident was obviously going to be reviewed anyway.
Marchand was already suspended three games earlier this season for slew-footing Vancouver’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson. That, combined with six other suspensions during his career, will not help him when the NHL rules on his punishment this time around.