Brad Marchand cross checks Ty Smith in the head.

No call on the play.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Brad Marchand cross checks Ty Smith in the head.
Anthony Nesmith/CSM/Zuma

This may have been a little hypocritical given some of the comments made by Bruins forward Brad Marchand over the past few days. 

On Sunday night Marchand and his Bruins faced off against the New Jersey Devils and less than half way through the game Marchand was taking liberties with a young rookie. Devils defenseman Ty Smith and Marchand had been battling hard throughout the night and although I can't read Marchand's mind I think there is a good chance that the rookie blue liner got under the skin of the notorious Bruins agitator. 

Smith and Marchand had several clashes in front of the net before we got to the incident that we're about to discuss, something that the Devils themselves highlighted when they tweeted out this photo of one of those battles.

The photo gives you a pretty good idea of how Smith may have agitated the agitator, but when Marchand finally blew a gasket he went a little too far. While Smith had his back turned, Marchand delivered several stiff cross checks to Smith, with the final one catching him clean in the back of the head. Smith immediately collapsed down to the ice, but unfortunately for the Devil's there was no call on the play.

Here's a look at the cross check.

Here's it is a little more zoomed in.

Now I mentioned that this was a little hypocritical on the part of the Bruins pest, and that's because it was. Just a few short days ago Marchand, understandably upset that teammate Brandon Carlo had just been injured after being on the receiving end of a head shot, went off on Capitals forward Tom Wilson.

It would not be very hard to imagine a veteran player on the Devils' roster making a similar statement to the media after their 20 year old former first round pick was on the receiving end of a stiff crosscheck to the back of the head.

The good news here for Marchand is that he is much less likely to be punished by Player Safety than Wilson was for his infraction. Smith would remain in the game following the cross check, which means it's less likely to draw their attention, or discipline.

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