Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand escapes encounter with the DoPS.

Dec 12, 2013; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand (63) skates against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

Brad Marchand is currently in the Bruins doghouse. His play has been sloppy, he’s made bad turnovers at bad times, and his chirping antics just only seem to get him deeper in hot water. Just when things couldn’t get any more uncomfortable for him, he ended up putting Calgary Flames’ Sean Monahan into the boards during their 2-0 win at the Garden last night.

Brad Marchand has been suspended twice before in his career. The Department of Player Safety has been seriously cracking down on dirty pool, bad hits, and other moments of egregious stupidity by NHL players. With the CBA defining him as a ‘repeat offender’, this blogger thought he was in some serious trouble. (A lot of us on social media, including myself thought the hit wasn’t a clean one.) For the moment, the Little Ball of Hate can breathe a little easier.

The Department of Player Safety has reviewed the hit by Marchand on Monahan and has determined that the two minute penalty on Marchand was sufficient under the circumstances. The DoPS believed that Marchand could have done significantly more damage and hit a lot harder than he did. That’s good news for Marchand, and welcome news to the Bruins who are already staring down a big suspension for Shawn Thornton and numerous injuries throughout their forwards and defensemen.

Coach Claude Julien didn’t feel the hit warranted any more penalty time than what Marchand got. “I look at that hit and it’s a two-minute penalty. I don’t think he was going in there looking to injure the guy,” said Julien. “He was going to hit him and the guy turned and he got a deserved a two-minute penalty.” The Bruins head coach even took a moment to defend his current problem child. “But that’s as much as it is. I don’t want us to start thinking that everything Brad [Marchand] does is bad. It’s a two minute [penalty] like a lot of other two minute [penalties]. Not any worse than all the high sticks our guys took to the face tonight. He took the two minutes, went to the box and served it.”

Let us hope that Marchand (I think he was playing better when he was still called Marshand.) takes this opportunity to double down and be the player that lead the team in scoring last year.