Did Sam Bennett punch Brad Marchand early on during Game 3 on Friday night?
The Boston Bruins certainly seem to think so.
Whether it was a ‘rabbit punch,’ or a sucker punch as NESN’s Boston-based commentator Andrew Raycroft called it, folks in Boston are pretty upset with Bennett.
Truth is, it is hard to tell from the angle of the TNT cameras whether Bennett meant to pop Marchand in the head or not.
It certainly appears that Bennett did catch him, however, as Marchand went down and looked woozy on the bench. He would not have crumpled like that with a shot to the shoulder.
Darren Pang seemed to have a pretty good view of the whole thing — which Marchand himself instigated.
With Bennett playing the puck off the wall and headed to the bench, Marchand skated in and lowered his shoulder; Bennett spotted him, braced for the hit and sent Marchand sprawling.
After being helped off the ice, Marchand left the bench for a minute, returned to the game and played through the second period. He did not play the third. Marchand was also missing from Saturday’s practice.
The Boston captain may not play tonight in Game 4.
What we do know is that no one really mentioned the ‘punch’ on Friday night; if the Bruins thought their captain was victim of a cheap shot, they certainly did not do anything about it.
No one, including the Boston media, asked Bennett about it after the game.
It really only became a story on Saturday morning and then grew when Boston coach Jim Montgomery talked about it.
“My eyes weren’t on the exact play … but having seen it, there’s a history there,” Montgomery said. “Bennett [is a] good, hard player, but there’s clearly evidence of what went on. People can say it wasn’t intentional. We have our view of it.”
Here is how it is being written up:
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