While this may not be easy for Bruins fans to hear, it should be easy for the league to decide. 

Anyone watching Tuesday night’s game between the Bruins and Blue Jackets, a contest in which the B’s grabbed their first victory in five games, probably didn’t fully process Brad Marchand’s second-period hit on R.J. Umberger right away. It was fast, Umberger went down, and the play continued. Looking back at the NESN telecast, it didn’t receive any more attention than your average open-ice hit. Umberger wasn’t even hurt. The play happened, and life went on. 

Then people saw the hit for a second and third time. Long after the victory was celebrated in Boston and the sweat from Tuukka Rask’s postgame interview was dried, it became pretty clear: The B’s caught a break from the refs. 

Marchand came up behind the Columbus forward and caught an unsuspecting Umburger with a high elbow to the head. The B’s rookie is the kind of guy you want on your team – high character, gritty and able to get inside in the minds of opponents – but his hit Tuesday was a textbook example of Rule 48. 

48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted.

Many will look at the Bruins getting away with one and cry that it’s just another case of what Jumbo Joestradamus prophesized last week: The NHL loves the Bruins and will never punish them (there was also something about a horseshoe in there). 

If that’s the stance you take on this hit, there’s both good news and bad for you. The bad news is that you’re going to be wrong (as you already were). The good news is that if you’re one who was waiting for a Bruin to finally be suspended after 40 whole days (Daniel Paille was slapped with a four-gamer on Feb. 4), you’re probably going to see it. 

Word hit the web Wednesday afternoon when ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun tweeted that Marchand would spend Thursday morning in a disciplinary hearing with the league. Unlike the last time the Bruins were facing scrutiny (and a hearing) for a hit last week, this one’s more of an open and shut case. 

Following Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty last Tuesday, there was an uproar of childish proportions from both Canadiens and Bruins fans. Habs fans called the police, while Bruins fans questioned Pacioretty’s concussion when he tweeted that he went to the movies, a place where bright lights might bother one who’s concussed. Not sure which action is more disgraceful, but both sides made their arguments as clear as they could over all the yelling.  

Still, when it came to the actual play, it was debatable. Some thought the punishment for the hit, in which Chara hit Pacioretty into a stanchion, could consist of a suspension of one or more games. Some thought the play didn’t warrant anything more than the interference major and game misconduct it got on the ice. At the end of the day, it was a hearing that people wanted to pay attention to because nobody – no matter how certain they acted afterwards – could say with the utmost confidence that they knew what the results would be. 

This time, there isn’t as much of an argument. Part of that is helped by the fact that the play didn’t directly impact an already raucous Boston-Montreal rivalry, but it’s mainly a case of something people on all sides should agree on, whether or not they want to admit it: This is clearly a suspendable play. 

Marchand’s actions should most certainly be punishable under Rule 48. The league and those who watch it still don’t seem to have a clear-cut understanding of what costs a guy a game (or more), but if Marchand’s hit on Umberger isn’t it, the league deserves to get far more flak for this one than they did for a debatable Chara hit. 

No, nobody was hurt, and no, it wasn’t the giant captain of the Bruins who did it, but what happened Tuesday was a clear example of what the league is trying to get rid of. The league may have gotten it right last week with Chara, but they’ll have to do the same with Marchand for the better of the game. It just wouldn’t make sense not to. 

If Brad Marchand gets suspended Thursday, something I would be very surprised to not see happen, it will not be because hockey fans are crying about the Bruins and Chara. It will be because the league is making the right call on an easy one that the refs missed the first time.