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Jovocop wrote:I don't think the BIG BAD BRUINS got the message.
I really think Chiarelli and especially Julien made a huge mistake backing Marchand's explanation in this. Shanahan (and the league) found that Marchand was lying when he said he was defending himself. They called him on his horseshit. I don't think anybody was buying that, but by throwing their support behind that nonsense, Shanahan has now said Julien and Chiarelli are liars by proxy.
There is a time and place to back your player, and that was not it. Chara on Pacioretty, you go to the wall. Lucic on Miller, you go to the wall. They knew going in to the phone hearing that 5 games was the max, they should have taken that charity and shut up. But by lobbying (exactly what the accused Vigneault of doing), they put their own integrity at issue and look like fools for it.
I think Marchand is smarter than people give him credit for, he identified the only plausible way for him to weasel out of that situation and sold it hard, but the tape speaks for itself. And by repeating it, Chiarelli and Julien look like either liars or idiots.
Reading between the lines, I bet the Bruins were warned to keep it in line, and I bet Marchand specifically was warned in advance of the game. Like one of the commentators said, the question before this game was who will get ejected and who will get carried out. Everybody could see something like this happening, I just thank god it was the little rat instead of Lucic, who could have inflicted much greater harm had he stayed in.
