Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand and Chicago Blackhawks center Andrew Shaw found themselves at the center of the melee that broke out near the end of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. There wasn’t really much of a fight between the two, but they dragged each other down to the ice and exchanged a few blows. According to Marchand, Shaw did more than just that.
After the game, Marchand accused Shaw of gouging at his eyes while he was on top of him. He also gave him a new nickname.
“It was a bit of a scrum there in front, and stuff happens in hockey, especially in the playoffs with tempers running high,” Marchand said, per Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com. “When [Chara] is battling with their guy, everybody is going to come in, and things just happen.
“Stuff happens. I’ve done that [punched a guy on the ice] before. The eye gouge is what I didn’t particularly like, but it’s part of the game. I’ve got a nice little scratch mark on my forehead from the claw marks from the … you know … kitty cat.”
Neither Shaw nor Marchand are exactly enforcers, so this will probably go nowhere. The most we will see is a few signs at the TD Garden with Shaw’s face on a cat’s body, but don’t expect the two to drop the gloves after the opening face-off or anything. Although, Shaw does blatantly drop F-bombs in his postgame press conferences. Maybe he’s more of a tough guy than we’re giving him credit for.
