On behalf of all of the Las Vegas valley: thank you! I hope when you visit us, you have as good a time as this hockey season has been for us!
It’s a question of consent. In playing hockey you consent to the possibility that another player may rough you up a bit with a glove to the face or even a punch or two. As far as I know this is the first instance of licking that has happened in an NHL game (not going to bother to search- correct me if I’m wrong). No one playing hockey has consented to being licked and nonconsensual licking is worse than a punch that is against the rules but still within the rule book. The tongue lashings all around and cries for suspension have resulted in exactly nothing. Marchand has been told he is not to do it again and there will be supplemental discipline should he choose to do so.
Gonna turn the rulebook into the DSM (what, XXXVIII?) with something like:
(new) Section 11
Douchebags Who Truly Lick
Sub-rule 88.4 (b)
Any player, who, really? is disturbed enough to lick another player, could use a good swirly or get duck-taped to the ceiling. (fuck it - Brad’s small and light - doable. Chara can help) And no glib, fuckwit dismissals of it in post-game i-views.
I have to say, that seems a bit strained. There are all kinds of annoying but not damaging things that a player hasn’t consented to.
Nobody consented to having a fish thrown onto them while they’re sitting on a bench, but if a player scooped up one of the squids thrown on the ice, and threw it in the opposing bench, some people might say that should be a penalty, but there wouldn’t be howls of outrage for him to be permanently banned from hockey. And if players consent to being punched, why is it a penalty?
So why is licking worse than having a squid tossed at you, and again, why is it worse than a punch in the face?
It is astounding that you need it explained why a directed exchange of bodily fluids between two people, which was initiated and desired by only one of the two parties, is something that is a) not at all a part of hockey, b) undesirable in general and c) considered by many to be much more disgusting, and thereby “worse”, than a punch in the face.
Are you casual about anyone wanting to deposit their bodily fluids on your skin?
Would you react the same to a light punch on the shoulder as you would to a little lick on your shoulder?
I’d much rather get punched in the face than have than have someone lick me.* I mean, that’s something my CAT does. Animals lick people. People don’t do that – it’s just…creepy.
I wonder if they’ll make up a rule against it and call it the “Brad Marchand Rule”?
*Well, at least in the context we’re discussing!
Context acknowledged!
I just want to get on record here before the Caps-Penguins [del]game[/del]series ends: the Knights are just the most obvious sign that a new era has begun for the NHL, IMO.
There’s another sign. Grats Caps! Way to exorcise that demon!
Sorry for the loss, Guin.
Thanks. Oh well – we DID win back to back Cups, that’s nothing to sniff at. And we DID beat the Flyers. 
Besides, I don’t see the Caps winning the Cup – they still need to get past Tampa, and whoever wins in the West. Until then…
LET’S GO KNIGHTS!!! (Bring Fleury #4!)
Yes.
Damn, sudden ending to that game. Kuznetsov made it look like he could have done that any time he felt like it.
Caps Caps Caps!!!
Kuzie’s dance was spectacular. A majestic bird who can actually fly, unlike the flightless penguin.
Back to Nashville, then, for a seventh game.
Nifty tweener from Forsberg. Funny if Karlsson saw the highlight and thought, “well alright, then”.
OK, fair enough. I have to say your argument is a bit strained also. I have yet to see anyone suggest that Marchand be banned from hockey, that is just a straw man you have built. Your comparison to spitting is an apt one- Marchand should have gotten a match penalty for licking as he would have for spitting. He didn’t because the rules of hockey don’t have any punishment in place for unwanted licking, but Marchand has seen to it that that omission will be amended.
As to why spitting is worse than punching, that is how the rules of the game have been drawn up. If you prefer being licked or spat upon to being punched that is up to you, but it is hardly incredulous that other people feel differently.
Go Jets!!!
Because punching has always been part of hockey. It’s something you accept as a player.
NOBODY expects licking. Like I said, it’s something animals do.
Hopefully this is the end of the licking.
Wow, watching Rinne skate off the ice and head to the dressing room was really sad.
Oh, my. All four of my teams got through. That NEVER happens. Figuring out who to root for this round is gonna be tricky. I’m going to go with whoever wins Knights v Jets I want to win the Stanley Cup.
WOW. That was AMAZING!
Now…GO KNIGHTS!!! GO LIGHTNING!!!