The Bruins winger's name has been on the tongue of hockey fans and pundits across North America, and Canucks coach Alain Vigneault and general manager Mike Gillis have also shared their two cents on Marchand's play.
Marchand got his chance to respond on Monday night.
The forward does a "diary" for ESPN.com, and he used that platform to discuss the accusations going around that he's a dirty player.
Marchand told ESPN.com that he didn't deem the play a "clip," as it was called on the ice and was again described as such by Brendan Shanahan.
"Clipping is when you hit someone at the knees and I did not hit him at the knees," Marchand told ESPN.com "Anyone that has seen the video will see that I hit him in the upper thigh under the buttocks. They can call it a clipping, but they obviously don't know the rules of hockey. I felt like I was trying to protect myself and get low and he went over me. It was very unfortunate that he was injured on the play."
It was clear that those in the Vancouver organization disagree with Marchand's assessment of the play.
"Marchand — this is just my feeling on this — some day he's going to get it," Vigneault said Monday. "Somebody is going to say enough is enough and they're going to hurt the kid, because he plays to hurt players and in my mind if the league doesn't take care of it, somebody else will."
Gillis called the play "a dirty hit by a dirty player."
Marchand addressed those criticisms and other criticisms of his play as well.
"It just shows the class he has or lack thereof," Marchand said of Vigneault. "I really am not going to respond or bite into what he's trying to feed me there. I hear Twitter was filled with comments about me today. For anyone that wants to call me someone who takes cheap 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 no meaning to me, I don't care what they say. I don't really care what my reputation is. I just want to play. I'm doing this as my job. I love this team. I'm just trying to be a player and I don't care what my reputation is really. I'm not out there to hurt guys."
Marchand continued to make it abundantly clear that he doesn't think he's a dirty player, saying he just plays the game hard.
"When I'm out there, I play a hard-nosed game and play hard," he told ESPN.com "If guys are soft and don't like it, then that's fine. I'm not out there to please anybody."
Marchand didn't avoid taking any parting shots at the Canucks, though. He also touched on the first-period scrum in which a handful of Canucks jumped on Shawn Thornton following a dust-up with Alexandre Burrows in front of the Vancouver bench.
That incident led to one actual fight, as Dale Weise squared off with Nathan Horton in a lengthy bout.
"They were pretty tough when it was six-on-one, but once they were all pulled off only one guy answered the bell. Just shows what kind of guys they are."
Marchand would not address the five-game ban, but said he may discuss it at a later date.
He will begin serving his suspension on Tuesday night when the Bruins welcome the Winnipeg Jets to TD Garden.
