For the initiated, Monday night’s game was what one would call domination. The Bruins stood over the Blackhawks, like the cover art from Straight Outta Compton, in all facets of the game. I am certainly not counting the Hawks out – but right now the Bruins appear to be very much in the driver’s seat of this series. Game three did give us the only fight to date, and since we are a blog dedicated to fighting in hockey – let’s talk a bit about the donnybrook in question.
Brad Marchand is a super-pest, as is Chicago’s Andrew Shaw. Both can play the game as well and have even shown a willingness to drop the mitts when forced. These two got locked up together with a few minutes remaining in the third, as were Brian Bickell of Chicago and Boston’s Zdeno Chara. Chara and Bickell were involved in a nice shoving match that ended with Z on top. When Bickell broke free, he arose sporting the same crazy stare of that kid in my neighborhood who used to wear a sheet for a cape whilst jumping off a tree stump to crack me over the head with a Wiffle Ball Bat. He looked nuts, I tell ya. Anyway, as this was happening, Shaw and Marchand got locked together, sans sticks and gloves. Not many punches were thrown, as Marchand was going for the takedown. Once he got said takedown, Shaw got below the hard deck to break a major rule of hockey pugilism by punching Marshy right in the face, really hard. Allegedly there was an eye gouge in the mix as well.
I take a lot of issue with Shaw hitting Marchand when he was down. So as to not be accused of being a homer, I also take issue with Marchand and his penchant for slew footing guys. He has been borderline undisciplined all playoffs and that’s continued into this series. Thankfully, the Blackhawks’ power play makes the Bruins’ PP look downright prolific!
Back to Shaw for a moment. Marchand is a pest, we all get that, but that is no excuse to hit him when he’s flat on his back. If you’re going to play the game on the edge like these two guys do – sometimes the gloves need to be dropped. I think it’s best to know the code before engaging.
While we’re on the topic of bad power plays, this seems like a nice time to bring up the very poor officiating in this series. Last night was no exception, with the roughing call on Shawn Thornton and the tripping call on Shaw being especially erroneous. It was my thinking that the refs were also the best of the best at this time of the year. On the one hand it’s good neither team can score on the PP. Conversely, it would really suck if either team decided to get the PP in order when playing out some shitty phantom rough, hook, trip, or whatever the hell. Either way, I like the Bruins having the mo, and expect them to continue it this evening in North Station.