ARLINGTON, Va. -- Brendan Shanahan has officially told the Bruins and Capitals to knock it off. 

Shanahan’s had a lot on his plate this postseason, and in suspending Nicklas Backstrom for Game 4 for his cross-check to the face of Rich Peverley, the league disciplinarian has made this series the most recent one to get that message. 

This postseason, with each first-round series no more than four games deep, has seen nine suspensions already. That’s two more suspensions than there were levied in the entire 2011 postseason. A lot of that has to do with Shanahan taking over for Colin Campbell and Co., and a lot of it has to do with the fact that this first round has featured some intense, angry series. 

The series between the B’s and Capitals wasn’t one of those series until Game 3, when there was a lot more work after the whistle, more jabs taken and one player speared in the crotch. 

Now that Backstrom has been suspended, the warning shot has been fired. Crossing the line will not be tolerated, and the Bruins players who toe that line need to be extra careful. 

“I remember three years ago, I kind of got in trouble for the exact same thing on [then-Canadiens forward Maxim] Lapierre,” Milan Lucic said after Wednesday’s practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “You try to do whatever you can to keep your stick down, but if you ask [Backstrom] if he could go back, he definitely wouldn't have done the same thing. 

“When there are scrums and stuff after the whistle, you've got to do whatever you can to make sure that you don't put yourself and the team in jeopardy.”

Lucic would be a pretty popular player in the “Who might put their team in jeopardy?” pool. One of the league’s premier power forwards, he plays a bruising style between the whistles, and often takes part in some extra shoving afterwards.

He was given one game for the aforementioned cross-check on Lapierre in Game 2 of the conference quarterfinals in 2009. More recently, Lucic clocked Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman in the head late in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals after Hedman was skating towards Nathan Horton. He wasn’t suspended or fined for the play with Hedman, but it was one of multiple postseason instances in which Lucic has appeared to take it too far. 

“You've got to be smart,” Lucic said. “Even if it's not a suspension, you don't want to put your team down by doing something stupid in a scrum. Definitely, the emotion and the heat has risen in this series.”

Brad Marchand became a household name last postseason for being as much of a pest as he is a player. He likely helped his jersey sales soar when he repeatedly punched Daniel Sedin in the face in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals last June.

He doesn’t feel that the Backstrom suspension should worry him or any of his teammates when it comes to their after-the-whistle antics. As long as they keep it clean, he feels they’ll stay out of trouble. 

“When it comes to it, you don't cross-check people up high,” Marchand said. “You try to stay away from that. It's just an incident that happened that the league felt should be suspendable, and we've just got to move on. It's not going to affect how we play.”

Both Marchand and Lucic are known for being participants in scrums, but they also both have track records as players who have been suspended multiple times in their respective careers. That doesn’t mean the two things are directly related, however. The Bruins roster does have plenty of proof that you make your presence felt without crossing the line. 

“Knock on wood, I've never had a talking-to or anything,” Shawn Thornton, who tied for the league lead with 20 fighting majors in the regular season, said. “I try to play within the lines, anyway. I'll continue to try and play hard and within the lines and not do anything stupid.”

The suspension of Backstrom came as a surprise to many. He was given a match penalty on the play, which carries a suspension pending review, but the sentiment in many circles was that Shanahan might not suspend the center for various reasons. First of all, Backstrom’s a star player, and Predators defenseman Shea Weber was only given a fine for slamming Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the glass after Game 1 of their series. Also worth considering was the fact that Peverley’s stick was in the air on the play, so some, as Dale Hunter did, could question whether there was any malicious intent on Peverley’s part.

Now, when those scrums happen, the placement of sticks, the extra shoves and anything else that may occur will be subjected to increased scrutiny. The teams have been warned, and one has been punished. Neither squad wants to be the next to hear from Shanahan. 

“I think the one thing you've got to do, is you've got to play between the whistles. There's scrums that happen after whistles, and you've got to be disciplined enough not to put your team shorthanded. We're just one of many series that have all the same things happening," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “This is not unique. This is playoff hockey.”