It's inevitable. The longer a playoff series goes, the more hatred that builds up. The Bruins and Hurricanes may not have had a ton of bad blood when this first-round series began, but they certainly do now.
The names at the center of it shouldn't be too surprising: Brad Marchand for Boston and Tony DeAngelo for Carolina. The two exchanged pleasantries several times during Sunday's Game 4 at TD Garden, a game in which Marchand (5 points) and the Bruins (5-2 winners) ultimately got the last laugh.
The most notable exchange came at the end of the first period, when Marchand and DeAngelo were seen yelling at each other for a good 15 seconds as they made their way towards their respective benches.
DeAngelo was clearly saying something about Marchand's nose, as evidenced by the motion he was making. DeAngelo was touching his own nose and then reaching downwards, as if to illustrate how big Marchand's is.
Marchand was definitely yelling something back, but, at least as of yet, there hasn't been any audio of the incident. A number of amateur lip-readers on Twitter believe Marchand was using the word "racist."
Among other off-ice issues, DeAngelo was suspended twice in juniors for violating the Ontario Hockey League's "harassment, abuse and diversity" policy, which aims to keep racist, sexist and homophobic language out of the league.
So, is that actually what Marchand was saying? The Bruins winger had no intention of saying after the game, as he side-stepped the question with a joke about Mother's Day instead.
"There wasn't much of an exchange," Marchand said. "I didn't even know he was around me. He kind of came out of nowhere. So there wasn't really much of an exchange. Just said, 'Hi, how's your Mother's Day?'"
DeAngelo wasn't made available to the media after the game, so for now there will be no confirmation from that side either.
Marchand and DeAngelo crossed paths again on one of the final plays of the game, when DeAngelo threw his stick towards Marchand as Marchand sealed the Boston win with an empty-netter. It was Marchand's second goal of the game, to go along with three assists.
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