NHLPA filed an appeal on behalf of Brad Marchand related to him suspension of the last six games. The first appeal will go to Commissioner Gary Bettman, after which Marchand can appeal to an independent arbitrator. Speaking to the media on Friday, Marchand give your thoughts on the suspensionand a three-match ban he received earlier this season.
“We believe the last suspension was very heavy. When I played three games, it should have been one game, based on the fact that I turned the game around and became a pretty good player in the league. This game. Like they said, you” won’t escape the history that ended up setting me up for this one. I will not say or justify that what I did was right. But this is a very deep suspension for these actions. “
He has already served one game of this six-game suspension, and it is currently scheduled to expire after the Bruins play the Colorado Avalanche on February 21. Even if he does receive a reduced sentence. from one of the appeal levels, it may not necessarily get him back into the squad sooner, depending on how long the process takes. What it could do is save him some money, as Marchand is losing almost $450k with this current ban. Any relief in the sentence could force the Bruins to pay him retroactively, even if it was reduced after the match was missed.
However, if Boston can bring him back sooner, it will certainly be an important change. Team does not have Patrice Bergeron as he faced a concussion and looked outnumbered by Hurricane Carolina Thursday night, losing 6-0 and losing 43-34. While Marchand may be a negative figure for many hockey fans, he is arguably the most important striker on the Bruins’ roster and has had 49 points from 39 games this year.
It’s not often that you see wingers picking up the Hart and Selke titles for five seasons in a row, but that’s exactly what Marchand did, as he transformed himself from a two-way player. move to become one of the best strikers in hockey. Any game without him on the roster would put Boston at a serious disadvantage, so getting him back is a priority.
This is not the first suspension to be appealed this season. In December, Bettman decided to reduce
Jason Spezza6 games suspended after the front Toronto Maple Leafs filed an appeal. However, that case could not be more different from this one. Spezza’s actions were clearly a targeted attack on a player he was angry at, but it was his long history of clean play that Bettman referenced when reducing his suspension. In this case, it was Marchand’s history that directly led to the federation introducing such a “terrible” ban.
