Bryan Marchment would know what to do. It probably would have been done by now.
Hockey lost the former infamous hockey enforcer in July 2022 when he died at 53.
Few players in the history of the Dallas Stars remain four-letter words like Bryan Marchment. He played from 1988 to 2006, and there is one moment that justifiably defined his career, at least to Stars fans.
He delivered a hit that changes a team. He delivered a hit that changes an entire playoffs.
It’s the same type of hit that Minnesota’s Matt Dumba delivered in Game 1 of the Wild’s first round Stanley Cup playoff series on Monday night against the Dallas Stars in Dallas.
There is hard, playoff hockey. There is dirty, playoff hockey.
What Dumba did to the Stars’ Joe Pavelski has shades of a hit Marchment delivered to the Dallas Stars’ Joe Nieuwendyk decades ago.
In the second period on Monday, Dumba left his feet to deliver a high hit to Pavelski, who had cleared the puck off his stick to give Dumba enough time to hit the brakes. Dumba didn’t stop for a reason.
Dumba hit Pavelski’s right shoulder so hard the Stars veteran forward turned and collapsed with full force on his left shoulder and head against the ice.
Pavelski is one of the top players on the Stars’ roster. A veteran who has been around and around, and priceless in the playoffs.
He’s a top line player. You lose him, and you’re going to lose a game or two because of it. Pavelski looked woozy, at best, as he was helped off the ice.
The Wild defeated the Stars 3-2 in double overtime. It was a clean game winner in the low slot with just under eight minutes remaining in the second OT, at about 1 a.m.
The Stars outplayed the Wild for much of the game, and twice had shots stopped by the shaft of a stick of Wild players in OT, but these things happen in the playoffs.
Game 2 is Wednesday night.
Because this is the NHL playoffs, expect Pavelski to be listed as “day to day; flu symptoms.”
The refs called a major penalty on Dumba, but replay reviews conducted by the NHL office in Toronto reversed the call on the ice. Dumba was, instead, assessed a two-minute, minor penalty for “roughing.”
No clue how that logic works, but one member of the Stars wasn’t having it.
Stars forward Max Domi immediately went after Dumba, and he was assessed a 10-minute misconduct. Less than five minutes later Minnesota tied the score at 2.
Just because Domi got a few pops in on Dumba doesn’t mean this is over.
This requires the type of old-school hockey justice that Marchment made famous, as did former Dallas Stars defenseman Derian Hatcher.
What Dumba did to Pavelski could wreck the Stars’ postseason, much like what Marchment did to the Stars more than 20 years ago.
Go back to Game 1 of the Stars’ opening round playoff series against the San Jose Sharks in April of 1998. The Stars were the No. 1 seed in the West, and a logical pick to reach the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 1 against San Jose wasn’t 20 minutes old when Marchment drove Nieuwendyk hard into the boards behind the net; Marchment clearly lifted his knee into the back of the Stars center’s knee.
Nieuwendyk dropped to the ice immediately. He suffered a playoff-ending torn ACL, and while the Stars defeated the Sharks in the series and advanced to the West Finals against Detroit, they weren’t going to beat that Red Wings team without their second-line center, who was good enough to be a top-line center.
It was a dirty hit by a notoriously dirty player. A player who injured Stars players Mike Modano and Greg Adams earlier in the season.
That was a different era of hockey; the league has gone to great lengths to discourage the on-ice justice system. This is still hockey. This is still the Stanley Cup playoffs.
If any current NHL roster has a clue what that era and those players were like it’s these Dallas Stars. They have a Domi. They have a Marchment.
Stars center Max Domi’s dad, Tie Domi, was known to get after whomever, whenever, wherever.
Then there is Stars winger Mason Marchment. He’s the son of Bryan.
Mason does not play the same game as his late father, but he’s not afraid. He’s not afraid to drop the gloves.
If the Stars roster situation looked a little better, and Pavelski was playing, the team could take a chance and unofficially send a Domi or Marchment to the ice with the intent of letting Dumba know that there are consequences.
If it was the regular season, the first minute of the next game between the Stars and Wild would feature a Stars player or players going after Dumba. On ice justice remains one of hockey’s greatest strengths.
This is the playoffs, and such decisions will be weighed accordingly. There are priorities. And then there are priorities.
What Dumba did to Pavelski wasn’t old school, playoff hockey. It was dirty.
It needs to be handled. On the ice.
Bryan Marchment would know what to do.
