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Brad Marchand earns misconduct after waving the white flag


In her smash hit “White Flag,” English singer-songwriter Dido delivers the following beautiful and inspiring lyrics:

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

Based on his actions on Friday night against the Dallas Stars, Boston’s Brad Marchand hasn’t recently been inspired by the tune that reached No. 19 on the Billboard Top 40 in early 2004.

With the game scoreless midway through the second period, the noted pest was assessed a double-minor for roughing after the Stars’ Radek Faska drove Bruins star Patrice Bergeron into the boards and Marchand jumped him.

Things got physical between Radek Faksa and Brad Marchand after Faksa laid a questionable hit on Marchand’s teammate. This was only the start of Marchand’s parade to the penalty box, though. (Getty)
Things got physical between Radek Faksa and Brad Marchand after Faksa laid a questionable hit on Marchand’s teammate. This was only the start of Marchand’s parade to the penalty box, though. (Getty)

Faksa received two minutes for roughing while Marchand was awarded the additional minor to give Dallas a power play that they were unable to take advantage of.

Then, not even two minutes after serving his time in the sin bin, he returned to the box for this “slash” on Ben Bishop. Or, as many others saw it, he received two minutes for tapping the Stars goaltender.

Based on the replay from high above the ice, it’s tough to even seen where the infraction took place. The closeup, on the other hand, does a fantastic job of displaying Bishop’s moving performance. If anyone knows anything about theatrics though, it’s Marchand.

While sitting in the visitors’ penalty box at the American Airlines Center, a place he became very familiar with on this particular evening, he made it clear to officials that he’d had enough. Unlike Dido, he put his hands up, surrendered and waved the white flag.

Literally.

That earned him a ten-minute misconduct and an early start to his second intermission.

Better yet, once he had served his 12 minutes of penalties, he took yet another minor for roughing in the third frame.

Do NHL refs have something against the 30-year-old Canadian or do they have him on their fantasy squads?

With 18 in this game, he now leads the league in PIMS with 66 this season. Vancouver’s Erik Gudbranson is now a distant second with 39. On top of his antics, Marchand is having yet another productive campaign offensively, with six goals and 20 points in 19 games.

Marchand’s fantasy owners have to be happy with his play, but you have to feel bad for Bruins’ forward Danton Heinen. With the way things shook out, he served the first minor of Marchand’s double for roughing up Faksa and sat in the box for him again when his teammate was sent to the dressing room with 7:14 remaining in the second period.

Boston went on to lose this one 1-0 in overtime after Dallas’ Jason Dickinson found the back of the net 1:34 into the extra frame.

In a game that seemed to revolve around him, Marchand just so happened to be on the ice when it ended.

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