Fluto Shinzawa, Globe Staff ---In an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub this afternoon, Mark Recchi emphasized how thankful he was that Max Pacioretty is recovering from the March 8 hit that left him with a fractured vertebra and a severe concussion. Pacioretty could play in the playoffs.Before everyone jumps on Boston Bruins forward Marc Recchi, just for the record Recchis isn’t known for being a dirty player and he is hardly a goon or a thug and Recchi does bring up some good points. I have to admit that I thought the same thing when I heard the announcement last week on Pacioretty. My first reaction was, I thought he was done for the season and that was a chance that his career was in jeopardy. Now we are hearing that Max Pacioretty has made this incredible recover in a very short period of time. Hum!
But Recchi speculated that the Canadiens embellished the nature of Pacioretty's concussion to prompt the league to suspend Zdeno Chara.
"He does obviously have a fractured vertebra, but the concussion is obviously really a non-factor," said Recchi, citing how Pacioretty attended a movie several days after the hit. "In maybe a day or two -- maybe a day he felt it -- but he was fine a couple days later. They were trying to get Zdeno suspended and they embellished it a little bit. In terms of that side, they're doing whatever they could to get him suspended. I think the league sent a message that it was a hockey play. That's the important thing and people have to understand. If they deemed it something that was serious, they suspended Matt Cooke up to 17 games for a head shot. They're serious about protecting the players now. That was an interference play at worst. The partitions got in the way. I don't think Zdeno is to blame for that."
You can color me skeptical… That does sound a little fishy to me.
