“Well it’s one of the most dangerous hits I’ve seen in a while. Nothing has to be said, as far as what should be done. I’m not going to play that, but it’s a pretty easy call as far as I’m concerned.”

- Rangers coach John Tortorella on Andrew Ference’s hit on Ryan McDonagh

It had been way too long since the hockey world was buzzing about the Big, Bad, Dirty Bruins.

A whopping two days after Brad Marchand returned from serving a five-game suspension, the Bruins have found themselves right where they were two weeks ago – being accused of foul play. And, just like with Marchand, the B’s don’t have much of a case this time. 

Ference, who has long been vocal about getting bad hits out of the game, surprised a lot of people – and probably even himself – when a full-speed play following a chip-and-chase turned into a menacing act in the Rangers’ zone nearly two minutes into overtime. With both Ference and McDonagh racing after the puck, McDonagh turned and Ference didn’t slow up enough in time to stop from shoving the Rangers defenseman into the end boards. 

Now, instead of getting attention for his second goal in as many games, Ference finds himself in a light to which he is unaccustomed. He was given a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct, a penalty that resulted in Marian Gaborik scoring the game-winning power play goal with 3.6 seconds remaining in overtime of the Rangers' 3-2 win over the Bruins. That might not be the end of the punishment, as he almost certainly will end up speaking to Brendan Shanahan to discuss whether a suspension is in order.

"I'm obviously going as fast as I can to get to the puck, and when I realized I wasn't going to get there first, he boxed me out," Ference said of the play. "I tried to lean back, but I was going too fast. Obviously it was a dangerous position. I tried to let up and didn't let up fast enough."

Ference prides himself on policing the ice when he feels the rules are broken. If there’s a hit he doesn’t like – clean, kind of clean, iffy or dirty – he’s going to do something about it. It’s one of the reasons he wears an ‘A’ on his sweater, and one of the reasons it shouldn’t have been that big a deal when he called out his own teammate (Daniel Paille) for a dirty hit last year. 

All that adds up to Ference wanting to be considered just the opposite of a dirty player. He’ll drop the gloves whenever he has to, often against guys bigger than him, but he isn’t used to delivering questionable hits that grab the league’s attention. 

With that being said, Ference does indeed have a history of the NHL taking a look at his actions. Forget about the intentional unintentional bird – last season’s  quarterfinal series against the Canadiens saw Ference lean into Jeff Halpern on a play that, though not called on the ice, earned him a chat with Mike Murphy. While the fact that the play even warranted a hearing caused some debate at the time, it establishes that this is not the first time in the last 12 months that Ference has delivered a play that got the league’s attention. 

Then there’s the fact that he plays for the Bruins. While the argument could have been made earlier in the season that the league was going easy on the defending champs (see Milan Lucic’s hit on Ryan Miller), there’s no denying now that Shanahan isn’t afraid to come down hard on the B’s. Shanahan gave Lucic one game based largely on reputation for his hit on Zac Rinaldo, and made an example out of Marchand by giving the pesky winger five games for his cheap low-bridge hit on Sami Salo.

The guess here is that Ference will join Lucic and Marchand as Bruins to be suspended this season. Ference’s suspension would be the third for the Bruins this season, which would put them in a tie with the Flames for most in the league. Calgary has had their players – Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (one regular-season game and four preseason games) and the twice-suspended former Flame Rene Bourque (two and five games) – suspended for a total of eight games. Lucic and Marchand have totaled six games so far for the B’s. 

While a suspension for the play figures to be in order, it would be surprising to see it cost Ference more than a game or two. Ference does have last year’s hearing on his record, but he does not have a reputation for hits as bad as Saturday’s. The Bruins made it clear that they’re preparing for a possible suspension, as they called up defenseman Steven Kampfer from Providence after sending him down a day earlier. 

Whatever Ference gets, the Bruins have already received their punishment in a way. Once again, they’ll have fans and media from all over accusing them of being a dirty team. 

What exactly defines a “dirty team” depends on who you ask, but there’s no denying right now that the B’s are a physical team that has seen its players cross the line more than once this season.