Brad Marchand Already Stirring Trouble With Stick Stomp On Cam Atkinson In Game 1

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- It's more than possible that you watched every single second of Thursday night's opening game of the second round between the Bruins and Blue Jackets without noticing a sneaky little move from North America's favorite pest, Brad Marchand. If you weren't paying hyper-attention, then you surely missed it.

It came before a neutral zone faceoff, with Marchand lined up against Columbus' Cam Atkinson on the wing. Before the linesman was set to drop the puck, Marchand lifted his right skate and stomped down hard on Atkinson's stick blade. Unfortunately for Marchand, the linesman didn't drop the puck, and he instead booted Bergeron from the faceoff dot. That gave Atkinson time to recognize that his stick had actually been broken.

Atkinson protested loudly to the linesman to explain what happened, and a referee had to step in after Atkinson violently waved his stick in anger. Atkinson then made his way to the bench to pick out a new stick. On his way back to the faceoff, Atkinson bumped Marchand, who spun around and caught Atkinson with a stick near the neck area.

To some, this would just be considered some overtime gamesmanship in the middle of a heated playoff hockey game. But because it involved No. 63 in black and gold, it naturally is going to draw some more attention.

And sure enough, the NHL Network gave the moment plenty of attention all night and morning long in its studio show, "NHL Tonight." Former NHL player Mike Rupp shined a spotlight on the play during the highlight package.

Rupp said:

I think Brad Marchand's gotta be careful, because this is old Brad Marcand. Listen: You're flirting with the referees there saying, 'You won't call this cuz it's overtime.' You're putting your team in a bad spot, when you do something dumb like that. Just play between the whistle.

Right here he gets him in the neck as well. That to me, listen, it didn't get called, that's fine, you move on. But Brad Marchand's gotta reel it in a little bit, because something like this could change the whole aspect of the series for that team.

Later, after the highlights were over, the trio of Jamison Coyle, Kevin Weekes and Rupp discussed the moment further.

Rupp said:

I'm all for being a thorn in the opponent's side. But look at this right here, you see marchand stomping on Atkinson's stick. To me, that language in overtime is telling the referees, it's showing a disrespect and it's insulting the referees in this situation, because you're saying, 'It's overtime! You ain't calling this.' That's a penalty, clear-cut, through every day of the week.

My point is -- for what? What is the point? You're in overtime. You're lucky they didn't call it.

Then he goes and when Atkinson comes back, Atkinson gives him a little bit of a bump, Marchand blindly swings his stick around and gets him in the neck. [If] that hits him in the face and drops him, and now you got [a penalty].

It's just not worth it. This guy, I love him as a hockey player. … He has to move past it. Quit doing that. Just play the game. They won, but he's lucky that neither of those things were called right there. His team could have very easily lost this game.

Weekes added:

Brad Marchand, you're one of the best players on the planet. I don't know how many different ways I can say it. I love his game. He's so skilled, he's so talented, he holds onto pucks, he makes plays, he's clutch, he's all of that. But he needs to shed the skin of yesteryear. He needs to shed all of that.

Rupp finished the point by saying the referees will pay extra attention to Marchand going forward:

Here's the situation: OK, you could look at it as a Bruins fan and say, 'Well, we won the game, that doesn't matter. That's Marchy being Marchy.' Well here's the situation: Referees, it's a small community. So you're sitting here and you're thinking, now the flag is up -- if it wasn't already -- on Brad Marchand. You're now watching for his antics. So maybe something comes up that's not even that bad. But you're getting attention on yourself for no reason. You're in overtime. You're on the radar; you're always on the radar because you're Brad Marchand. You just made it a little bit worse.

Weekes then advised Zdeno Chara to take a break from doing pull-ups and chin-ups and "get over to [Marchand], put your finger in his chest, sternum bone, and say, 'Hey, listen, we need you. Be cool.'"

While it may seem like a national show making a big deal out of nothing, Rupp is likely correct in his assessment that referees will be talking and may not take kindly to being put in a position to make a penalty call like that in overtime. And certainly, if Marchand's blind swing of the stick had caught Atkinson a couple of inches higher, than the bloody scene on the ice may have made for an ugly moment.

Now, had the offending party in this instance been, say, Chris Wagner instead of Brad Marchand, then you can bet it wouldn't have gotten its own segment on "NHL Tonight." But Marchand's history of working in Pest Services is long and storied, so any moment like this is surely going to get blown up a bit bigger than usual.

For his part, though, Marchand doesn't appear to be sweating it. The winger, who has nine points in eight playoff games but was a minus-2 with no points in Game 1 vs. Columbus, deadpanned Friday after practice that Atkinson was actually the one at fault for the incident.

"Yeah, I think he was trying to dull up my blade there, send me to the room to get it sharpened," Marchand said, per NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "It's kind of rude of him to do."

Marchand was clearly in the chirping mood on Friday, too, as he joked that he was surprised to see Riley Nash injure David Krejci with a body check.

"I don't think he had a hit in two years with us," Marchand said of Nash, per The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa.

Rupp and Weekes may be right in saying that the men in stripes will be paying more attention to Marchand going forward. Certainly, an extended segment focusing on the brief exchange on the one national network that spends a lot of time covering hockey will ensure that the stomp will get plenty of attention from fans and refs alike.

But, well, Marchand doesn't seem to be worried about the refs worrying about him. He instead appears intent on making sure that it's the Blue Jackets who spend the most time thinking about him as this series goes on. He's off to a pretty hot start.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.

In:
• NHL
• Brad Marchand
• Columbus Blue Jackets