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Leafs get last laugh over Bruins' Marchand
By
LANCE HORNBY, QMI Agency
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OTTAWA — A few Maple Leafs wanted to tell Brad Marchand where to stick his imaginary golf club after Thursday’s game.
The Boston centre taunted the Leafs bench at the end of a second-period altercation when he took a mock swing to indicate the Leafs were close to playoff elimination and a date on the links.
Marchand had just scored a nice short-handed goal and the Bruins led heading to the third, having lost just twice in 30 similar situations.
After Marchand said Phil Kessel hit him with a gloved fist at the buzzer, the “rattled” Bruin made the unsportsmanlike gesture.
“That was a little immature of me,” Marchand told the Boston Herald afterwards. “I got a little bit of an earful (from coach Claude Julien) between periods.”
Some Leafs definitely saw him, but coach Ron Wilson played it down by the time his team flew to Ottawa on Friday.
“Maybe he’s going golfing today, but it was snowing in Boston and he was getting warmed up,” Wilson deadpanned. “I didn’t notice it and I couldn’t care less if he did. It’s irrelevant.”
Winger Mike Brown missed it too, but got a kick from the story.
“It’s something you shouldn’t do,” Brown said. “If he’s apologized, then all right. But we got the victory, so who has the last laugh now?”
