Brad Marchand suspended six games for late-game meltdown against Penguins

The NHL didn’t wait long to dole out another suspension for Brad Marchand, announcing this evening that the Bruins winger has been suspended six (!) games for punching and poking Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry.

The incident came at the tail-end of the Bruins’ 4-2 loss on Tuesday night.

It’s what many Bruins fans feared when watching the incident unfolded, as the already shorthanded B’s will now be missing their best winger for a big stretch of games.

In the league’s explanation video, they say Marchand “delivers a gloved punch to the unsuspecting goaltender, knocking him to the ice.”

They termed the slash a “sharp jab to the head and neck area” of Jarry as well.

Marchand absolutely deserved discipline for what happened, and has no one to blame but himself for blowing a gasket.

Overall though, the video from the NHL seems to be a bit on the dramatic side, especially when league went out of its way to state that Jarry “does not initiate the altercation with Marchand” while showing Jarry jawing at Marchand:

Regardless, trash-talking after the whistle doesn’t necessarily greenlight getting whacked in the head, then the slash was the icing on the cake.

Marchand just has to be smarter. Simple as that.

Marchand was already suspended three games earlier this season for “slew-footing” Oliver Ekman-Larsson, so you knew the league was going to make an example of him this time.

He’ll miss the Bruins next six games, which are vs. Carolina, at Ottawa, at the New York Rangers, at the New York Islanders, at Ottawa (again), and vs. Colorado.