Shayne Gostisbehere Not Expected to Be Disciplined for Shot at Brad Marchand
Shayne Gostisbehere is not expected to receive discipline from his shot at Brad Marchand in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final, per Sportsnet’s Eric Engels.
With his team trailing 4-1 in the third period of its Game 1 loss to the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere took his frustrations out on Brad Marchand — and it led to some fireworks.
The Pembroke Pines, Fla. native shot the puck directly at Marchand while 100 feet away from the net, and it angered the 16-year veteran. Marchand retaliated, dropped the gloves with Gostisbehere, and dropped him to the ground before receiving a 10-minute misconduct which kept him out of the rest of the game.
Florida found itself on the penalty kill when it was all said and done after Gostisbehere received a two-minute minor for the scuffle and nothing for the shot while Marchand was also tacked with a four-minute roughing penalty.
Even Gostisbehere himself would tell you there was intent behind the play.
He admitted to reporters that he was “pissed off” that Marchand tried to “take a run at me” and flat out said that he shot the puck at Marchand.
Despite the confession from Gostisbehere, the NHL Department of Player Safety is not likely to deal out any disicpline for the play headed into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, per Sportsnet’s Eric Engels.
Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov is also not expected to be disciplined for driving his knee into the head of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Panthers were not quick to give their thoughts on the play, even after how things played out.
“I’ve got one,” coach Paul Maurice said when asked for his opinion. “I’ll be keeping that to myself.”
When Aaron Ekblad was asked about it, he said “We block shots all the time, what’s the difference? … Intent or not, it hurts the same.”
The Panthers are very much focused on continuing to build its game after embarrassing the Hurricanes, 5-1, in their own barn in Game 1 and taking a 2-0 Eastern Conference final lead back to South Florida after Thursday night’s Game 2.
”No comment,” A.J. Greer said when asked about the play by TNT. “We’ll see next game. We’re just going to keep playing hard, get on the forecheck and play hard. It’s not an easy game, there’s going to be some stuff going on in the playoffs. You can’t get too involved in it, you just got to get past it and on to the next one.”
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