The video is labelled "hip check", which is nonsense. That's clipping, as defined in the rules and as explained by Brendan Shanahan in the suspension video. Some Bruins fans are, unsurprisingly, complaining about the suspension, insisting that it was a hip check and comparing it to some of the hits the Canucks threw in the finals. Here's the most common comparison:
The Hamhuis hit is a hip check, the Marchand hit is clipping. It's really as simple as that. I'd even opine that if you can't see the difference between Marchand's hip check on a player with the puck and Marchand's clip, you may need to try some mental exercises, like swapping the players' jerseys in your head as you watch the videos. Even if you thought that Marchand's hit was a hip check, Salo doesn't have the puck when he's hit.
For Bruins fans to believe that they're somehow being constantly and horribly mistreated by the league is perfectly understandable, as they're constantly exposed to the lunatic hallucinations of the most repulsive play-by-play announcer in hockey, Jack Edwards. NESN broadcasts don't define reality for the rest of us, though, and those of us outside the Bruin bubble might wonder at the fact that the suspension was only five games. That, combined with the incredible non-suspension of Milan Lucic after running Buffalo's Ryan Miller, makes one more inclined to think that on the contrary, the Bruins are getting specially lenient treatment from Brendan Shanahan. Overall, though, THN's Adam Proteau is almost certainly right in believing that the whole system is simply ineffective.
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Whenever there's a suspension on a dirty hit, let alone talk about stricter enforcement of the rules, someone who may or may not play an imaginary piano on Hockey Night in Canada pipes up about how "they're trying to take hitting out of the game". In one sense, they're absolutely right: there are people trying to take hitting out of the game. Here's one:
USA Today: Boston Bruins Team Report
But coach Claude Julien knows Marchand can take it too far. And that's what happened Saturday, when his clipping major and game misconduct led to two goals that helped the Canucks post a 4-3 win over the Bruins.
Asked to assess whether he player stepped over the line on that hit, the coach said, "The last thing I want my players to do is get hit and then end up with a concussion, and they have to protect themselves. Whether it's the right way or the wrong way, it'll depend on how the league looks at it.
"I'd rather have a guy take a two-minute penalty than turn his back to the play, stand up straight, and then get his face knocked into the glass and be out for maybe the rest of the year with a concussion, or maybe end his career like (Marc) Savard. So I think we have to really look at those kinds of things.
"In my opinion, if guys start protecting themselves the way Marchand did, maybe guys will stop taking runs at other guys because that's the consequences you end up paying for taking runs at guys, too. Who knows where we're going to go with this. I know we're all trying hard to fix that part of the game, but it's still there, and it's still not fixed."
Wait, what? Taking runs at guys? Never mind that Salo is trying to play the puck, not "take a run" at anyone. Even ignoring that, what Julien's saying is that he's fine with his players clipping an opponent to avoid being hit. By no stretch of the imagination is Marchand trying to protect himself from a hit; he's trying to injure the other player. To bring up Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard as some kind of justification for Marchand's actions is borderline insane.
Overall, Julien's comment is the latest example of a bizarre line of thinking that seems to maintain that NHL players aren't allowed to deliver bodychecks on the ice. That's what he's saying: he's fine with his player making a dirty play and injuring an opponent to avoid being hit. This is the same philosophy that leads to the idiotic after-the-whistle scrums and fights when a "star player" gets hit: coaches and players who believe that no-one should be allowed to hit their players. Julien goes an extra mile in trying to justify a blatant attempt to injure another player.
It's especially telling that the suspension video includes an example of Sami Salo and Brad Marchand making contact in a similar situation, where Marchand seemingly becomes irate after a completely clean hit by Salo. Clearly he feels that Euro punk has no business hitting him, and teaches him a lesson next time. It's ludicrous to imply that Marchand was so frightened of a Sami Salo bodycheck that he was trying to turtle down to protect himself. On the contrary, I believe he deliberately set out to injure Salo for having the gall to throw a bodycheck on him. These are the only people trying to take hitting out of the game.
Just for added value, here's Brad Marchand doing exactly the same thing to a Sedin last year:
I suppose Claude Julien would argue that he was so frightened of being hit and concussed by one of the Sedin twins that he had to protect himself.
If you want me to express things in the heteronormative way that imaginary-piano players prefer, I'd say that Marchand needs to man up and take the hit, not try to hurt the other guy. It's rats like Marchand who draw the ire of people like Brian Burke, even if Burke's notions of the players policing the game are rubbish. Julien defending Marchand's actions is reprehensible, and putting forward the astonishing notion that he was trying to protect himself from Marc Savard's fate is ridiculous. Like his players, he seems to have no class at all. From retired veteran Mark Recchi badmouthing the Canucks after winning the final to the antics of young players like Lucic and Marchand, the Bruins are turning into an organization as repulsive as their TV announcer.
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