A two-goal deficit and a sluggish opening 30 minutes of play weren't enough to deter the Bruins on Friday afternoon, as Boston rallied back against the New York Rangers in the third period, forcing overtime before eventually capping off a 3-2 victory by way of a David Krejci bullet in the extra stanza.
A familiar culprit secured the equalizer for Boston just 4:27 in the third, with David Pastrnak blasting a Krejci feed past Henrik Lundqvist to knot things up at two goals apiece. The source of the scoring wasn’t much of a surprise for Boston, but Pastrnak’s linemates were — at least on the wing.
While Krejci has filled in for Patrice Bergeron (lower-body injury) for the last three games, Brad Marchand was nowhere to be found when Pastrnak lit the lamp, with Jake DeBrusk slotting in on Boston’s top line during the shift.
Marchand certainly heard the roar of the TD Garden crowd when Pastrnak fired home his 24th goal of the year, but he couldn’t get back out on the bench quite yet.
"That was nice,” Marchand said postgame of hearing the crash of noise from Pastrnak’s snipe. “It was a good feeling, but you want to be out there with the guys. Not sitting in the back room when you shouldn’t be.”
Despite securing another two points in what was Boston’s sixth straight victory, Marchand was mighty steamed in the B’s locker room postgame — and for good reason.
After his first shift in the third period, Marchand was pulled from the game by a concussion spotter, putting him out of action for close to 10 minutes as Boston attempted to claw back from its one-goal hole.
Marchand didn’t have a bone to pick with the spotter’s role in identifying symptoms of the traumatic brain injury and ordering players off the ice for testing. Rather, his frustrations centered around the timing in which he was whisked away from the game.
With just 27 seconds left in the second period, Marchand appeared to be a bit woozy after skating into Rangers skater Jacob Trouba, with the defenseman’s elbow catching Marchand up high on a seemingly harmless play.
https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1200509775227867137
But rather than get examined and cleared during the second intermission, Marchand returned to the ice for the final stanza of regulation play, only to get pulled off the ice in short order. The winger was not thrilled, splintering his stick before heading to the locker room, throwing the remaining portion of his stick down the tunnel.
"That's embarrassing," Marchand said postgame. "I mean, they had 30 minutes, 20 minutes to sit there and review the tape and call that in, but they made me come out in a 2-1 game as we’re starting to get momentum. To do that, the guy up there is busy eating pizza and cheeseburgers and can't watch the game. Maybe next time he'll pull his head out of his butt and watch the game.”
Marchand, who said he received no explanation for the delayed call, apologized on Twitter later that night.
https://twitter.com/Bmarch63/status/1200599711457005568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1200599711457005568&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonglobe.com%2Fsports%2Fbruins%2F2019%2F11%2F29%2Fbrad-marchand-rips-concussion-officials-for-long-delay-pulling-him-out-game%2FIFkdicOXFulTmlOI97KgwL%2Fstory.html
Still, Marchand was far from the only one irked at the timing of his removal — given that there was a free 18-minute window for such protocol to be carried out.
"This game’s on NBC," Bruce Cassidy said. "He gets hit at the end of the second period, and then they pull him at the start of the third. To me it’s, we’re trying to market our best players; I thought it was fairly evident when he was hit, and then they decide to do it at the start of the third. That’s the only explanation I got.
"I don’t know why they wouldn’t do it in between periods; there is an 18-minute intermission. ... He checked out fine. It’s a little frustrating for him especially when it happened at the end of the second period, so I didn’t like the timing of it at all."
Since last year, the NHL has featured an off-ice official in every rink to monitor players dealing with potential head injuries and remove them from game action if deemed necessary. The initiative is indeed a major step in the right direction when it comes to protecting players from these kinds of traumatic injuries, but it’s rather evident that there are a few kinks that the league still needs to work out — and not just the odd timing with Marchand’s removal.
Last month, Canadiens goalie Carey Price appeared to be in rough shape after Arizona’s Derek Stepan clipped him in the side of the head with his skate. Even though Price seemed wobbly, he remained in the game and was not removed at any point by the spotter.
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