It looks as though Brad Marchand’s pitch to shave down some of his six-game suspension fell on deaf ears.
The NHL announced on Friday evening that it would uphold Marchand’s six-game suspension for roughing and high-sticking Tristan Jarry last week — more than 48 hours after Marchand presented his appeal in person to Gary Bettman at the league offices in Manhattan.
As a result, Marchand will miss two more games, Saturday’s road matchup against the Senators and Monday’s matinee matchup against the Avalanche.
In a lengthy release from the league that explained Bettman’s decision to uphold the suspension, the NHL stressed Marchand’s history and his “lack of judgment” as the primary factors in their decision to not ease up on the initial sentence.
The statement noted:
“Finally, in reaching my conclusions I have given careful consideration to Mr. Marchand’s testimony concerning his efforts to control his emotions in order to excel as an impact player who plays aggressively, but within the rules. I believe that he has already made significant strides towards achieving this goal. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Marchand’s behavior and lack of judgment in respect of these incidents did not meet acceptable NHL standards.
"He created a distraction which reflected poorly on himself, on his team and on the League as a whole, and as such, I find he also deserves the penalty he received. Having said that, I encourage Mr.Marchand to reflect on this experience and to use it positively in furtherance of his efforts to refine and improve his on-ice image and game for everyone’s benefit.”
In particular, the report noted that what prompted Marchand’s initial punch was Jarry stating, “How about that f------ save”?”.
As the report added: “To say that Mr. Marchand overreacted to that comment would be an understatement.”
Marchand can still appeal to an independent arbitrator if he so chooses — although, with just two games left on his sentence, you wonder if it’s really that worth it at this point.
In his last media availability, Marchand acknowledged that his actions in garbage time of that Penguins game was “stupid”, but added that his point of contention was the length of said punishment.
"They don't measure progress, which I've come to find out," said Marchand. "It goes back to the last (suspension). That's where I really found it out. We believe that the last suspension was very hefty when I got three games - should've been one. Based on the fact that I've turned my game around, pretty good player in this league.
“But again, you're not gonna escape the history part of it, which ultimately set me up for this one. Again, I'm not gonna say or justify that what I did was right. But this was a very deep suspension for these actions. These plays were not going to injure Jarry. There was gonna be no potential injury on that play. He was very well protected. The fact that it's six games - again, it's based on history, not on the play. That's where, again, they make decisions based on the way they see it. We feel it was very steep."