Beyond the Headlines

With all due respect to the hero of Hammonds Plains, Brad Marchand is not one of theNHL's marquee players. He's certainly no Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin.

He is agritty, solid forward who specializes in getting under the skin of opponents.The kind of player that, if he's not on your team, fans and players love tohate.

Maybethat explains the intense reaction to Marchand's hit on Sami Salo, a hit theNHL's Brendan Shanahan called "predatory".

As ofearly Tuesday morning, more than 280 people had commented on our CBC online storydetailing Marchand's five game suspension. The debate is lively to say theleast.

It's thesame on Twitter.

In the hours after the suspension was announced Marchand wasone of the top trending topics in Canada. He certainly has his supporters, butthe vast majority of tweets are uncomplimentary. And that's a politedescription.

For hispart, Marchand says he doesn't care what people think.

In the online diary hewrites for ESPN Boston, Marchand says, "I hear Twitter was filled withcomments about me today. For anyone that wants to call me someone who takescheap shots, they can say what they want. It doesn't affect me. I don't care what people who don't know me and I don't know them and they have nomeaning to me, I don't care what they say. I don't really care what my reputation is. I just want toplay."

Strongwords but it's hard to believe the 23 year old's skin is really that tough.

One thingwe do know - he has a sense of humour. Check out this ad Marchand did for aBoston area sporting goods chain. No heart-tugging Sidney Crosby/Tim Horton'sstuff here.

I don'tknow what he got paid for that ad, but the extra cash will come in handy.Sitting out the next five games is going to cost Marchand $152,439 US in lostsalary.