New video angle confirms Bennett sucker-punch on Marchand.
A new video angle leaves very little doubt about what happened to Bruins captain Brad Marchand.
The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety may have made a major blunder.
A new angle of the sucker punch, and yes it does in fact appear to now conclusively be a sucker punch, delivered by Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett to Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand appears to show clearly what transpired on the play. The reverse angle shows exactly what Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery described earlier in the day, with Bennett cocking his fist and slamming it into the face of Marchand when contact is made.
The footage was uncovered by the crew behind the TNT broadcast and it has been deemed conclusive by all members of their panel, including former players from the NHL.
"I know Bennett plays on the edge... and that was hidden," said Colby Armstrong. "I think there's intent there for him to throw that little rabbit shot out there on that collision to make that happen."
Armstrong not only believes this was intentional, but pointed to Bennett's history as a contributing factor behind his reasoning.
"When I noticed it it's like you can't not see it," said Armstrong. "We've seen Sam Bennett do this before, he got Matthew Knies last year in the playoffs as well."
The issue now of course is that the Bruins have also seen this footage, as was made clear by Jim Montgomery's comments, and the NHL's Department of Player Safety has not seen fit to issue any supplemental discipline to Bennet. It is no longer a mystery why members of the Bruins have been making threatening comments leading up to Game 4 later tonight as it seems they intend to take matters into their own hands.
You can review the video evidence for yourself, but it is pretty damning for Bennet:
