If you told me you couldn't definitively say whether or not the guy who clearly treats the label of "repeat offender" as a badge of honor truly meant to elbow Marcus Johansson upside the head then I wouldn't call you a dangerously biased Masshole who is one Tom Brady retirement speech away from having not one single reason to live. I might think it...out loud...to myself...and others, but - due entirely to the fact that the mere thought of conversing in R-less broken English makes me want to screw-drive myself deaf - I wouldn't say it to your face. After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Even if that opinion is that in breaking a fall that had yet to occur, a 5'9 player who could have officially been branded as a scumbag five suspensions ago accidentally had his right elbow make full-force contact with the helmet of an unsuspecting 6'2 opponent. Hey, you know what, just for kicks (Marchand is familiar with those), let's see if there's any validity to that line of thinking by way of the NHL's most tried and true process of video review...snap judgements based off the over-analyzation of millisecond by millisecond freeze-frames! As you can see here, we have one of the most shifty, skilled, and well-balanced skaters in the entire world quickly approaching the crease with both his feet under him... Oh, and wouldn't you know it, there he is again! This time slightly closer to the crease with both feet still under him. I suppose it's a bit odd that his skates appear to be leaving the ice unprovoked, but - wait - why is his arm doing that?! Hm, strange... ​Now this one, I'm not sure what to make of. I know what goes up must come down, but that looks like a pretty controlled leap, and I was made to believe that Brad Marchand was aimlessly flailing around while uncontrollably plummeting downward. Weird, it almost looks like it was a conscious decision to raise his arm above shoulder level and into the awaiting cranium of Marcus Johansson... And now, only after the brain damage had been administered, do we witness any sort of catalyst for what some might call "a fall", and others might consider "a half decent cover from someone whose learned how to best get away with being a shithead after spending nearly a decade doing so"... So NHL, you tell me. If the half dozen goals the Devils' have had waved off over a quarter of an inch this year are any indication, you guys are the experts on this sort of thing. Was Brad Marchand just preemptively protecting himself against a tumble that he, himself, initiated by delivering an unsuspecting player his second concussion of the season? Or, is it all possible that he's actually just as much of a malicious prick as he has proved over...and over...and over...and over again throughout his career? Hmm, tough call! UPDATE: Or is it?
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