Marchand goes after the rebound and is promptly attacked by 4 players.

We are still a month away from postseason action in the National Hockey League but apparently someone forgot to inform the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning of that fact. Both teams appear destined for the playoffs at this stage of the season and both teams are expected to be legitimate contenders in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs and on Saturday night the two teams clashed in what can only be described as an extremely heated matchup. It was one of the most physically and emotionally intense games of the season for both organizations and no doubt there will be many fans of both teams cheering for these two to meet for a potential 7 games series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

It was the second period that really kicked things off in a major way and to absolutely no one's surprise it was Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand who once again found himself at the center of it all. Now to be fair to Marchand here I don't think it would be correct to blame him for this incident, he was after all just doing his job here, but there's also no doubt in my mind that the fact it was his name on the back of the jersey played a factor in the reaction from the Lightning. There was just over 5 minutes left to go in the game's second frame when Marchand pounced on a rebound in an attempt to close the gap on the Lightning who had taken a large lead and that resulted in him quickly being attacked by 4 members of the Lightning. Again, Marchand was clearly not looking to take on 4 guys larger than himself, but instead it was the Lightning's players that more closely resembled a pack of wild dogs than a group of hockey players for a brief moment.

We would not have to wait long before seeing another incident between these two teams, again perhaps a sign of things to come should these two groups ever face off in the playoffs this season. There was just over a minute left in the second period when the Bruins scored, however play was allowed to continue before the signal came down from Toronto that a goal had in fact been scored. As soon as the goal horn sounded all hell broke loose once again.