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Brad Marchand suspended 6 games for incident with Tristan Jarry

Many have been singing the praises of Brad Marchand this season. He is, of course, an immense talent, but he's recently managed to pair that with more and more of his personality, becoming one of the more interesting players in the entire league. Unfortunately, Bad Brad returned Tuesday night in a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins while feuding with opposing netminder Tristan Jarry.

It started off fine — hilarious, even.

During a stoppage in play, Marchand caught Jarry attempting to pick up a puck Trevor Zegras-style to lift into the seats as a souvenir for a group of fans. Not having that, Marchand circled the opposing net, coolly knocked the puck off Jarry's stick before catching it one motion and tossing it across the ice in a measure of disgust.

That, for a group of Bruins fans, was way more meaningful than any puck.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there between Marchand and Jarry in a sudden rivalry for which there seems to be no meaningful origin, or at least so it appears. With the Bruins pressing down two goals in the final seconds, Jarry was hanging on to a frozen puck before Marchand reached across and landed a punch to the side of the netminder's head.

A minor melee ensued, and Marchand emerged again from the crowd to poke Jarry in the face mask and neck protector with the blade of his stick. Marchand received a match penalty for his role.

As a result, Marchand was offered an in-person hearing by the NHL, and was subsequently suspended six games for a combination of roughing and high sticking.

No question past behaviour factored heavily into the equation as Marchand is a seven-time repeat offender when it comes to suspendible acts. He's only two months removed from his last league-mandated ban for a slew foot on Vancouver's Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Marchand has been at the fringes of the league's MVP discussion, sitting 12th in league scoring with 21 goals and 49 points in 39 games. Losing six games will likely put an end to that.

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