NHL Department of Player Safety Cracks Down on Brad Marchand After Dirty Game Against Buffalo

On Saturday, we had a full slate of games across the National Hockey League, and early on, we saw perhaps the biggest upset of the season to date, with the 1-3-0 Buffalo Sabres dominating the Florida Panthers, coming away winners 3-0.

It was a brilliant game from the Sabres, who came off their first win of the season against the Ottawa Senators, but it was by no means a clean game, as there was plenty of physicality between the two teams.

Perhaps the biggest moment of frustration in the game came from Panthers veteran Brad Marchand, who was cross checked by Rasmus Dahlin, responding by taking the opportunity to jump on him while he was down, throw some punches before stealing and destroying his helmet.

Unsurprisingly, the NHL's Department of Player Safety wasn't too happy about the situation, as they announced early on Sunday morning that they have fined Marchand $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Clearly, it was the textbook definition of unsportsmanlike conduct, with Marchand unnecessarily jumping all over Dahlin to get his revenge on the Sabres captain, as there were likely much better ways to go about it for the Panthers veteran forward.

Ultimately though, a player needs to stand up for themselves, so it's an understandable move by Marchand, but perhaps next time he'll go about getting that revenge in a different way, with his move clearly not helping the Panthers as they ended up being dominated by the suddenly red-hot Sabres.