"Some day, he's going to get it," Vigneault told the Vancouver Province following Marchand's hit. "Somebody is going to say enough is enough and they're going to hurt the kid, because he plays to hurt players and in my mind if the league doesn't take care of it, somebody else will."
The league did take care of it on Monday, but Marchand is among those who still find Vigneault's comments a bit troubling.
"You don't see stuff like that very often," Marchand said on WEEI's Mut and Merloni Show on Wednesday. "It's a clear threat. Last time something like that happened in Vancouver we all saw what happened [Avalanche forward Steve Moore got a career-ending cheap shot from Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi in 2004] and it turned out very bad. So, hopefully the league will take care of that situation."
Marchand talked at length about his hit and the five-game suspension during his radio appearance, and he maintains he was just trying to protect himself as the bigger Salo was closing in on him in the corner.
"In a situation like that there have been guys who are a lot smaller than him who have come at me, and I've done the same thing and there's been no suspension," Marchand said. "I thought I was just trying to protect myself, and that's how it is. I was bulldozed, and I'm allowed to protect myself in that way. That's all I was doing."
Marchand also noted that league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan said during the hearing that it's OK for the winger to deliver a hit like he did if he's protecting himself. Shanahan, however, felt that Marchand was the aggressor, which led to the suspension.
