A Blood-Bath Rivalry Game

At 12:42 minutes in the game, Milan Lucic tangled with Deryk Engelland. They fought for a good minute before the refs came in and split them both apart. Milan chirped Engelland all the way to the box.


10 minutes into the game, Brad jumped into the play with his linemates, now consisting of Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith, since Loui was out of the game due to the possible concussion suffered at the hands of Orpik. They took the puck away from the Penguins on the ice and started out of their zone.

Brad skated after the puck, as Pittsburgh made a line change. He took the puck on his stick, spotting Sidney Crosby coming for him, deliberately.

Brad spun around, attempting to spin away from the oncoming Penguin forward, who stuck out his stick and deliberately tripped Brad up. He crashed to the ice thanks to Sidney Crosby.
Patrice skated past him, his eyes on the puck.

Brad attempted to get to his feet, getting onto all fours, but instead felt a stinging burn enter his head. A sharp pain erupted from the right side of his head. He instantly blacked out for a second, screaming in pain, as something made contact with his head spinning him 180 degrees on the ice.

When he came to, he learned that James Neal had kneed him in the head, seeing the replay on the screen. A trainer hovered over him, tending to him.

Brad glanced to the side and spotted Sidney Crosby smirking cleverly, with his teammates, as a break occurred due to the injury.

He high-fived Orpik.

“How does it feel to be a victim, March?” Orpik roared.

Brad moaned and cringed, rotating his head back to a position, where he was staring straight up.

“Marchy, you okay?” Patrice asked, skating up to his linemate, clearly concerned. He helped Brad to his skates, with the aid of the trainer and they slowly made it over to the bench.

“How many more fucking Bruins have to go down until someone teaches those bastards a lesson?!” Shawn Thornton howled on the bench, flustered.

With that, Coach Claude Julien sent out the 4th Line. Bad idea and big mistake!


Shawn Thornton and the Merlot Line took the ice, after a few minutes of break, as Brad Marchand was being tended to on the bench for a possible concussion.

The play halted on the ice, with Brooks Orpik chatting with his fellow teammates. Gregory Campbell was tangled up in amongst the rivals. Orpik began to push him around.

“Why don’t you go pick on someone your own size, you goon!” Gregory snapped, attempting to shove back. “Leave us alone!”

“It was a clean hit!” Orpik snarled, continuing to try and stir up a fight with Gregory. "You all are the bastards who keep coming after us!"

Instantly, Shawn Thornton’s eyes narrowed and he made a deliberate line for the “scrum”. He grabbed Orpik around the neck, yanking him backward and to the ice.

“What the----?!” Orpik shouted, before Shawn landed two hard punches to his head in fury.

“You piece of shit, Brooksie!” Shawn growled, as Orpik went limp on the ice.

Patrice grabbed two Penguins, who made an attempt to pull Shawn off and help their teammate out. "Thorty, stop it, let him go!"

"Thorty, no!" Brad wailed from the bench.

"Back off, Thorty, back off!" Patrice Bergeron screamed.

"He can't hear us!" Reilly Smith shouted.

"He's in the zone!" Dougie Hamiltion added on.

Shawn was finally pulled off of Orpik, who was unconscious (or seemingly unconscious) on the ice. The ref pushed him backward, toward the bench.

Brad watched as a few Penguin players motioned to the bench, or rather the medical staff to come out.

He saw Shawn Thornton's head go limp, as the man rested his head on the ref's shoulder for a split second. The big goon was clearly concerned and tired. The eyes told that. The ref let him go at the Boston bench.

"Thorty, no!" Brad gasped.

Shawn leaned against the bench, speechless, silent and unemotional. His teammates patted him, comfortingly.

"You had the right intentions, Thorty. You didn't mean it," Milan spoke.

Shawn looked away from his teammates. He felt sick. He stared intently at the injured Penguin forward, who was helped onto the stretcher, as the rest of the Penguins skated around, daring not to help out or even care.

The sight made Shawn even more ill inside.

The medical staff pushed the stretcher off the ice with the injured player and then the ref indicated that the once great tough guy known as Shawn Thornton, who respected the line and never crossed it, would be given a game misconduct penalty.

Shawn exited down the tunnel, his stomach in knots. Brad watched him leave, never once glancing up at his teammates, who tried to tell him that he wasn't at fault.

Brad understood his teammate completely and felt sympathy for him. Shawn Thornton was the most honest guy he knew and he knew that the tough guy had crossed the line and truly felt sick about it. He knew that Shawn would be emotional and that he would care. He wasn't out there to injure anyone, he was just trying to play his role and unfortunately went too far, crossing the line.

Brad turned back to the ice. The game was continuing on. He couldn't worry about his teammate.

Claude Julien should never have put the Merlot Line on the ice. Especially not after Brad got kneed by Neal and tripped by Sidney Crosby.

But the refs should have called an interference call at least on Orpik, back in the beginning of the period. And Orpik should have been a man and stood up for himself and his actions by fighting Shawn, when he challenged him.

And maybe Brad shouldn't have hugged Sidney Crosby.

Maybe it was Brad's fault his team was in the position they were in.

But maybe it was the refs'.

Maybe it was Orpik's.

Maybe it was Sidney Fucking Crosby's.

And maybe, just maybe it was the Pittsburgh Penguins team's fault.

At least, this is what Brad Marchand thought. But why would anyone listen to the Bruins' pest.

Notes

Again, I know this isn't exactly how the thing played out, but I'm sure it was similar and I SWEAR TO THIS DAY THAT Neal's knee to the head was SET UP! Whether Sidney told him to do it or not.