I write these words as someone who as recently as two weeks ago thought the whole thing was goofy (to borrow Cassidy’s word) but otherwise harmless. What I didn’t know was that it was fast becoming Marchand’s calling card. And that became the problem: Once it became commonplace, it ceased being funny. It became boorish, embarrassing, to the degree that the NHL had no choice but to take the unprecedented step of issuing a no-licking decree.

The zero-tolerance policy that had been in place whenever Marchand is on the ice had been reduced to a sub-zero policy. Yesterday’s game was just 12 minutes old when Marchand was slapped with a 2-minute minor for embellishment. If you believe it was a ticky-tack call — and I’m guessing many of you do — it may have occurred to you that the real reason Marchand was whistled off was for licking Ryan Callahan in Game 4.

-Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald where you can read more on Marchand.