Marchand was called for boarding and served his two minute minor, but he made sure to plead his case on the way to the sin-bin. Now, Marchand has a history of cheap shots, and dirty plays, and for that he has earned himself the number 3 spot in the NHL’s Most Hated Players according to Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated. But, when a player has his back to you, you simply do not hit them. It’s as easy as that. In full stride, Marchand nearly lunged himself into Neal, sending him into the boards.

Most of the attention in game one between the Penguins and Bruins was focused on the hit Matt Cooke put on Adam McQuaid. Now, the difference between these two hits, is McQuaid knew the hit was coming, he clearly saw Cooke behind him, and he left himself vulnerable to the hit. Neal, was completely vulnerable and Marchand appeared, seemingly, out of no where.

Marchand’s hit on Neal came just 60 seconds after the hit on his teammate Adam McQuaid. And, then again after the period had ended, the two teams exchanged shots. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin threw a few punches with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron. It all started on the skate to the bench, when captain Sidney Crosby gave goaltender Tuukka Rask a little shove and a few words. Tempers escalated and Boston captain Zdeno Chara took matters into his own hands and shared his concerns with Crosby.

Now, I don’t mean to get away from the subject or anything, but I would just really like to say something. Sidney Crosby is one of the most skilled players I’ve ever seen. He is also the subject of many hate filled tweets on my timeline on a nightly basis during Pens games. So, all I want to say, is enough with the tough guy act Sid. Get back to playing hockey. No more cheap shots, smacks, hacks, or shoves behind the referees where you know you can get away with it. Just go out, and play hockey.

Matt Cooke recieved a game misconduct, and Adam McQuaid left the game with an upper body injury.

I don’t like seeing hits like this. I love hockey, and I love it even more when a rivalry is built in the playoffs when two hard-nosed teams collide in an all out physical war, but no one wants to see this. Both hits were illegal, both hits had the potential to injure, and one of them even did. No suspensions were, or will be handed out to either player, but I’m sure someone will be talking to them both at some point.

Now, it’s the playoffs, and we’re down to four remaining teams. The intensity is building, and everyone knows they are only a few games away from a potential spot in the Stanley Cup Finals. The games are going to be physical, and I have no doubt, that after game one, the rest of this series is going to be very interesting. I just hope that they can clean up the dirtiness of these hits and get back to playing clean, physical, rough hockey. No one wants to see players get hurt, and I hope we won’t have to touch on this subject again, but unfortunately, that’s the game. And so, I look forward to watching the rest of this series that has promised to be a great one with the Boston Bruins up by one, it will be interesting to see how the Penguins can respond on home ice after suffering a 3-0 shutout loss in game one.

May 12, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Bruins right wing Jaromir Jagr (68) carries the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs during game six of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at the Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs beat the Bruins 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

I have decided to do another new feature that will hopefully be daily but we will see. I’m always on twitter and sometimes the things people say are very interesting. Some people have some strong opinions and sometimes 140 characters isn’t enough to tell them how wrong or right they are. So here’s the Twitter Roundup, where I will take tweets I see out there in the twitterverse and respond to them right here on Too Many Men on the Site.

What really made me want to do this is a tweet I saw from last night (I’m going to keep this one as confidential as possible because I don’t want to be too hard on them). Here is part of what the tweet said (the part I had a problem with):

“Jagr doesn’t care about the game anymore. He only cares about MONEY!”

When I read this I couldn’t believe my eyes. Jaromir Jagr is one of the best players to play the game and deserves way more respect than that. A Pittsburgh Penguins fan wrote this and I am going to chalk it up to an unfortunate cocktail of anger over the loss to the Boston Bruins and bitterness over Jagr signing with the Philadelphia Flyers when he returned from the KHL. The thing with Jagr is he loves the game but he isn’t in his 20′s anymore. Giving your all in the playoffs is hard especially when your run is this long. Jagr is 40 and tired, which is why it may not seem like he is all in. I can assure you he has enough money to retire, he is playing for the love of the game and for anyone to think otherwise is disrespectful.

Another tweet that caught my attention was one by the king of twitter himself, left bench for the Phoenix Coyotes, Mr. Paul Bissonnette. He was putting his two cents in on the Matt Cooke hit on Adam McQuaid from the Penguins game last night.

Well I find that odd considering McQuaid saw Cooke coming & Neal didn’t see Marchand @gagnonfrancois. Both r minors. twitter.com/BizNasty2point…

— Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0) June 2, 2013

Now I didn’t see the Brad Marchand hit so I’m just going to talk about the Cooke one and the interesting picture BizNasty brought to our attention. Clearly McQuaid saw Cooke coming the hit deserved a penalty but not an ejection or suspension. I don’t think there would have been an ejection if it wasn’t Cooke that hit him. Cooke has a long history of dirty play and that may have made the refs biased towards him. There will not be a hearing for Cooke and the last tweet I have from Darren Dreger will explain why.

On Cooke hit and potential of suspension. Keep in mind the history of the player isn’t factored until the hit is deemed worthy of discipline

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 2, 2013

Because history isn’t taken into consideration until a hearing Cooke won’t have one. I can see this series creating a whole new Boston Pittsburgh rivalry that will make for some amazing games of the next week.

If you see a tweet you think I should talk about in the Twitter Roundup email it to us at tmmots@yahoo.ca.

May 3, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Matt Cooke (right) reacts after being assessed a slashing penalty against the New York Islanders during the first period in game two of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The twitterverse was buzzing with opinions last night over a few questionable hits but none so much as the hit by Matt Cooke on Adam McQuaid. Penguins fans were upset about the fact that Cooke not only got a five minute major but also a game misconduct for checking from behind. Most of outrage was due to a possible bias due to Cooke’s history with these kinds of things. No hearing will be had for this hit so Cooke will not be suspended but should he be?

I can think of no better question for the start of our Daily Poll. Everyday I will pose a question and you guys vote and discuss away. We here a Too Many Men love to hear your opinions so don’t be afraid to comment and tell us what you think. Today watch this video of Cooke hit and play Shanahan. Would you suspend Cooke for this hit?