Brad Marchand takes up residence in Tony DeAngelo’s head
It was not a fun day at the office for Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
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In addition to his team finding themselves on the wrong end of a 5-2 loss in a series-tying Game 4 at TD Garden, DeAngelo took a horrendous third-period penalty with his team down by two, and was booed by the TD Garden crowd every single time he touched the puck. But all of that pales in comparison to DeAngelo letting Bruins winger Brad Marchand crawl inside his head with yet another run-in to simply accelerate the aforementioned unraveling.
The Marchand vs. DeAngelo battle has been percolating for a little bit now. The sides have exchanged post-whistle pleasantries multiple times this series, and Friday’s Game 3 featured a heated skirmish between the two. But when the two reconnected at the end of the first period on Sunday, the cameras caught the two repeated insults.
DeAngelo’s attack thrown No. 63’s way was a motion that appeared to be DeAngelo making fun of the size of Marchand’s nose. But rather than attack DeAngelo’s looks, Marchand instead went for a more personal touch. Marchand’s weapon of choice? A reference to DeAngelo’s off-ice issues, with Marchand appearing to say, “You’re racist, you’re [expletive] racist.”
Sure seems like it: pic.twitter.com/Vk0MhtnJZy https://t.co/08DFoUdRse
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 8, 2022
Marchand’s comment is a reference to DeAngelo’s problematic past, which saw DeAngelo suspended twice during the 2014 OHL season for hateful language, including an eight-game ban for making “most inappropriate statement to a teammate.” To make matters worse, DeAngelo’s father essentially doubled down on his son’s comments back then, and noted that it’s a language that’s used “every day.” (You might be like me and doubted that at first, because who would admit to such a horrendous thing? But no, there is indeed a video of his father outright admitting this.)
Prior to joining the Hurricanes as a bargain free agent last summer, DeAngelo most notably skated with the Rangers, until they basically kicked him off the team following a postgame altercation with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. This, of course, was after DeAngelo gave the Rangers’ brass more headaches than they ever wanted with social media usage that included unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 presidential election, COVID-19, and more. The Rangers couldn’t find a taker for DeAngelo on the trade market, and ultimately put him on waivers and bought out the remainder of his contract.
In other words, the dude’s a bit of a loose cannon, and Marchand has successfully wormed his way inside. And with more Bruins deciding to join in on the fun by the end of the afternoon, from Curtis Lazar to Connor Clifton and Chris Wagner.
Curtis Lazar: “What the f**k are you doing?”
— Blake Thorne (@_BlakeThorne) May 8, 2022
Tony DeAngelo:#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/h64a7U0P71
As for what us semi-professional lip-readers seemed to pick up, Marchand is pleading the fifth.
“It wasn’t much of an exchange. He kind of came out of nowhere, so there wasn’t really much of one,” Marchand, fighting back a smirk, said of the run-in with DeAngelo. “Just saying, ‘Hi, how’s your Mother’s Day?’”
Whatever it was, it was more than enough to get DeAngelo to completely melt down before the Garden’s very eyes, with a fitting stick throw towards Marchand’s path to the net on Boston’s empty-net goal.
Brad Marchand scores an empty-netter and Tony DeAngelo throws his stick at him: pic.twitter.com/dvr3QziLmu
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) May 8, 2022
Tied at 2-2, Marchand’s Bruins and DeAngelo’s Hurricanes will reconvene Tuesday night in Raleigh.
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