Stop licking opponents, NHL tells Bruins’ Marchand
In the National Hockey League, players can get penalized for butt-ending, spearing, kneeing, high-sticking and other acts of roughhousing.
Until this past weekend, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins had apparently managed to get away with licking.
Marchand, the Bruins left wing, got into a tussle with Tampa Bay Lightning right winger Ryan Callahan on Friday — and videos appear to show him running his tongue along Callahan’s face.
“Well, he punched me four times in the face, so, you know, he just kept getting close,” Marchand said of Callahan, according to ESPN.
Marchand is described in his official team biography as “antagonistic” and “irritating” and is nicknamed Little Ball of Hate. He is among the league’s most penalized players and has been repeatedly suspended or fined throughout his career.
So perhaps it should not be shocking to learn that Marchand has done this before. Once again, video from last month appears to show Marchand nibbling at the cheek and neck of Toronto Maple Leafs centre Leo Komarov.
(The move marked something of an escalation for Marchand, who apparently tried to kiss Komarov on the cheek during a game last year.)
Anyway, the NHL has finally had enough.
On Saturday, the league said in a tweet that it had put Marchand on notice that his actions were “unacceptable and similar behaviour in the future will be dealt with by way of supplemental discipline.”
Marchand responded Sunday in an interview with NBC.
“It is what it is. I think it’s pretty stupid, the whole situation,” he said. “But if that’s what they want to do, then that’s what they want to do.”
The NHL’s statement was likely welcomed by Callahan, who had expressed displeasure about the episode after the game.
“I don’t know what the difference is between spitting in some- one’s face and licking it,” Callahan said.
Marchand’s coach, Bruce Cassidy, said Sunday that he had instructed his player to “zip it,” ESPN reported.
Cassidy said he understood that Marchand’s moves were an attempt to get under his opponent’s skin.
But he said he had urged him to find another way.
Marchand led the Bruins in points during the regular season, and his coach suggested he might more effectively annoy opponents by “scoring some goals.”
Athletes, though, have long invented creative ways to rattle their opponents.
Former NBA centre Dikembe Mutombo was known to wag his finger at an opposing player after blocking his shot.
Lance Stephenson famously blew in LeBron James’ ear during the 2014 Eastern Conference finals.
And Luis Suarez, a Uruguayan soccer player, has on three occasions bitten an opponent, a habit he once defended as “relatively harmless.”