Sam Bennett’s blow that eventually led to Brad Marchand exiting Friday night’s Game 3 was so sneaky that clear video of what happened really didn’t begin to circulate on social media until Saturday morning.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was among those who hadn’t really seen what happened as of his postgame press conference. But when he met with the media after Saturday’s practice, he had a different view of things.
“In real time, my eyes weren’t on there as the puck had left that area,” Montgomery said. “But having seen it, there’s a history there with Bennett. Hard player, but there’s clearly evidence of what went on. People can say it wasn’t intentional, but we have our view of it.”
The play in question came just under four minutes into the game. Marchand lined up Bennett in the neutral zone, but Bennett – playing his first game of the series after returning from a hand injury – braced for the hit and Marchand bounced off him and crumpled awkwardly to the ice.
In real time, and on the first couple replays, that was all it looked like. But once the video got slowed down and a second angle emerged, it became increasingly clear that Bennett actually landed a jab – a sucker-punch, really – to Marchand’s jaw with his right hand.
That is obviously something much different, and dirtier, than just a good, hard reverse hit. And Montgomery is right that Bennett has a history of this. In fact, Bennett did almost the same exact thing in the second round of the playoffs last year to Toronto’s Matthew Knies:
Panthers coach Paul Maurice was also asked about the play during his Saturday morning media availability. Unsurprisingly, he had a different opinion than Montgomery.
“No,” Maurice said when asked if he saw a punch. “And I don’t think most of you would either. It was just a collision. In a perfect world, every team has everybody healthy. Nobody likes to see anybody get hurt.”
Bennett was not penalized on the play, and it doesn’t appear he’ll be hearing from the NHL for any supplemental discipline either. The Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy reported on Saturday that none is expected.
Marchand, meanwhile, did not skate at Saturday’s practice. Montgomery said he is considered “day-to-day.”
The Bruins will certainly want to get some sort of revenge on Bennett in Sunday evening’s Game 4, but how they go about doing so will be interesting to watch. They probably can’t afford to do anything that hands the Panthers a power play given that Florida’s man advantage went 4-for-6 in Game 3. Trailing 2-1 in the series makes it a tough time to try to dish out frontier justice.
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