NHL makes official ruling on Brad Marchand for shoving an official

It appears as though the NHL has made its official ruling on the status of Brad Marchand after the Bruins captain shoved a linesman during last night's Game 6.

As they have been doing all series, Brad Marchand and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi continued to pester each other last night during Game 6. In the first period, as Bertuzzi was attempting to make a line change, Marchand finished a check on him and held him over the Bruins' bench. One of the linesmen came over and separated the two of them and in the process, received some backlash from the Bruins Captain. After Bertuzzi went to the Leafs' bench, Marchand then forcefully shoved the linesman away from him and went off on a change himself.

Typically, this is an automatic game misconduct, according to rule 40.1, but the officials decided not to hand out any discipline to him at the time, although that really shouldn't come as a surprise as one referee was from Boston and one linesman was from Massachusetts.




Not only did Marchand escape a game misconduct, he also avoided any supplemental discipline as the rule also indicates that physical abuse of an official automatically carries a three game suspension at the minimum.


Considering the NHL is quick to hand out fines to players and coaches for calling out poor officiating in the media, it is quite surprising that Marchand did not even receive a fine for his actions. With all that Marchand has gotten away with, though, and the fact that having him in the lineup draws more eyes to Game 7, it shouldn't come as a surprise.