Coming off of a clunker against the New York Islanders on Thursday, the Boston Bruins got more bad news on Friday.
Though hardly unexpected, the league announced it was denying Brad Marchand's appeal of his six-game suspension, ensuring the Bruins will be without their leading scorer for two more games.
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Marchand was suspended for his actions in the final moments of a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 8 at TD Garden, in which he was called for both high sticking and roughing against Pens netminder Tristan Jarry.
The earliest Marchand can return to the lineup for the B's is next Thursday for the club's first ever trip to Seattle to face the Kraken.
In four games without Marchand this time around, the Bruins are 1-2-1 and have been outscored by a 12-4 margin. Boston was 1-1-1 without Marchand when he was suspended earlier in the season for slew footing.
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Despite missing nine games overall on the season, Marchand remains the leading scorer for the Bruins with 49 points (21 goals, 28 assists).