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Over the last few years, I've written a couple of blogs about serial recidivist Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand and his absolute disregard not only for opponents but also for his team. He plays to his own whims and agenda, apparently thinking the "B" crest on the front of his sweater stands for "Brad". As I wrote last year,, a snake can shed its skin but it is still a snake, and a sneaky dirty hockey player can also shed his skin ("super pest to superstar") but he's still not a player to be trusted.
Marchand has the speed and two-way talent to remain a highly effective player without the slew footing, spearing, drive-by elbows, slashing and other antics. Instead, he chooses to be a latter-day Ken "the Rat" Linseman; who was a very good NHL player when he chose to play the game but too often preferred to live down to his nickname. Ask NHL Alumni what they thought of the Rat and you'll find grudging respect for his puck and very little respect for him as a teammate or opponent. He put up points and could win on a top-end team where he was a secondary piece but could never be trusted as a focal point.
That Marchand chooses to skate down down the Linseman path is his own business. The real shame of the matter here is that he's never been held accountable -- not by his coaches, team leaders, general manager, on-ice officials or by the NHL's Department of Player Safety. There's only ever been lip service paid to accountability.
The latest five-game slap on the wrist isn't going to deter him one little bit, and why should it? The NHL still promotes him as one of its All-Stars. Future punishments will only be continued slaps on the wrist. Rinse, wash, repeat. The Bruins still handle him with kid gloves, even after his selfishness on the ice led to a suspension in the thick of the stretch drive. Coaches and team leaders feel no impetus to try to get him in line, first of all because the days of the self-policing locker room are over in these PC times and secondly because everyone (too many on-ice officials included) wait around for DOPS.
When I refereed, there was no such thing as special treatment. I didn't care about a player's stats, endorsement deals or whether the game was on national TV. I didn't care if he was an old friend (ala Mark Messier). I equally didn't care if his coach was an old friend and former teammate (Robbie Ftorek), my own former coach and one of my favorite people in the game (Jacques Demers) or someone I barely knew.
I'd have told Mr. Marchand that he had a choice of where I'd seat him -- he play the game the right way and go back to the bench at the end of each shift, or he could spend the night in the penalty box or else go back in the locker room. I'd accommodate his choice.
The point of supplementary discipline isn't simply to punish. It's to correct and deter dangerous or reckless play and to promote a safer game. That's impossible to accomplish when a player like Marchand serves a few games here, a few games there and then gets the benefit of the doubt on his next two or three suspension-worthy actions before the next slap on the wrist. The "usual suspects" revolving door does not serve the game very well.
In the case of a serial offender such as Marchard, there needs to come a point where -- like Raffi Torres finally receiving a 41-game suspension or teams finally deciding that Matt Cook had outlived his usefulness to them -- a statement will be made. Alas, the statement will come too late. Unlike Torres or Cook, who were role players, Marchand is considered a star player. Thus, he's going to continue to get leeway for the foreseeable future.
Sad but true.
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.