This might be peak Brad Marchand…
Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand is one of the greatest pests in hockey history. On top of that, I don’t think it’s even up for debate that he’s the most creative when it comes to getting into his opponents’ heads.
On Saturday, he added a new one to his pest highlight reel when he stole an opponent’s helmet and ripped off the straps while sitting in the penalty box.
The Cats were in Buffalo on Saturday, hoping to snap a three-game losing skid. About halfway through regulation with Florida trailing 1-0, Marchand took a cross-check to the lower back from Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin.
Marchand hopped to his feet and tried to hunt down the Sabres blueliner, and when he did, he started pummeling him.
The Swede wound up getting turtled, while every other player on ice got involved.
But when things started to cool down, Marchand took a trophy with him to the penalty box: Dahlin’s helmet.
He sat in the penalty box and popped off every strap that he could before he threw the brain bucket back on the ice.
Marchand got a pair of minor penalties, one for interference and one for roughing, and that handed the Sabres a power play, which they scored on to go up 2-0.
Just a couple of minutes later, Buffalo tacked on another one at even strength, and that was all she wrote with the Sabres winning 3-0.
That is a fourth straight loss for the two-time defending champs, who have a few key players like captain Aleksander Barkov out all season, and Matthew Tkachuk expected to be out of commission until December.
It’s still very early, of course, but the Panthers will want to get back in the win column ASAP. The Atlantic Division is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the NHL, and these early losses could come back to haunt them later.
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