It’s now no surprise to anyone that famed aggressor turned forward with finesse, Brad Marchand, was ejected from game 1 between the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes. Marchand got into more than just a scuffle with the Canes forward Shayne Gostisbehere after the latter seemed to intentionally shoot a puck at Marchand. Marchand ended up wrestling Gostisbehere to the ground before the referees interfered and broke the two apart. While Marchand has remained quiet on the subject, along with coach Paul Maurice, Florida teammate Aaron Ekblad has broken his silence.
“We block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?” Ekblad said to a reporter when asked about Gostisbehere firing the puck at Marchand. After all, many have argued that Gostisbehere should have been penalized in the first place for shooting the puck at Marchand. In fact, with the league having fined Niko Mikkola $5,000 (the maximum allowable amount) for shooting the puck dangerously close to Montreal’s Denis Savard in late March, many wondered why the same zealousness wasn’t extended to Gostisbehere.
But Ekblad saw things differently. When the reporter said that the difference was in the intent of the act, Ekblad insisted that whatever the intent was, the effect would remain the same. “Intent or not, it hurts the same,” he said. The very fact that Ekblad has chosen to respond to this without siding with his teammate is an interesting move. Or maybe he is trying to keep things low-key considering an elbow he directed at Jackson Blake’s head that he may be trying to avoid another suspension for. But perhaps his opinion is in line with Coach Paul Maurice’s thoughts on Brad Marchand’s fight that he too didn’t fully disclose.
Ekblad was asked about Gostisbehere firing a puck at Marchand.
“We block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?”
Reporter: “Intent?”
“Intent or not, it hurts the same.”
— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) May 21, 2025
When asked if he had an opinion on the whole debacle, Paul Maurice said, “Yeah, I’ve got one, but I’m keeping that to myself,” which leaves us with only speculation. It’s fair if the Panthers are slightly irked with Marchand for letting his emotions get the better of him in such a high-stakes series, especially since things were starting to go so smoothly for Florida. While Marchand’s suspension isn’t yet confirmed, Florida, understandably, wouldn’t want anything to jeopardize their winning streak at this point.
Differing opinions about the Brad Marchand incident
While Aaron Ekblad didn’t shy away from letting his contrary opinion on the whole clash be known, Maurice refrained from commenting, and he wasn’t the only Panther to take that approach.
Like his coach, forward A.J. Greer also responded with a “no comment” before adding, “We’ll see next game; we’re just going to keep playing hard. You know, going to get on the forecheck … and play hard. It’s not an easy game; there’s going to be stuff going on in the playoffs. You can’t get too involved in it; you just got to get past it and on to the next one.”
But at the same time, Brad Marchand did have his defenders in the league. TSN analyst Carlo Colaiacovo wrote on X in favor of the argument that intent does matter. “When you purposely shoot a puck at a guy, you might wanna drop your gloves when he comes to fight you.”
Drama aside, the Panthers still did well; regardless of Marchand’s ejection, they won 5-2, and they have a good track record against the Canes in this round, so there is certainly no dearth of confidence. We’ll have to keep a keen eye on Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad in the next game to see if their sportsmanship managed to survive this little bit of drama.
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