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There were a lot of people who were stunned to see Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery unload at his team’s captain Brad Marchand over the weekend, and that led to some criticism.

However, none of the criticism is coming from Marchand — y’know, the guy who actually got yelled at — who instead defended his bench boss.

The incident happened on October 19 with the Bruins on the road against the Utah Hockey Club.

In the third period with the B’s leading 1-0, Marchand coughed up the puck, and that led to Utah’s Vladislav Kolyachonok scoring the tying goal.

After the goal, Montrogmery didn’t hide his displeasure.

Utah ended up winning that game in overtime, and afterward, Montgomery was the subject of criticism for going after Marchand like that and giving him a light shove to the shoulder.

However, Marchand didn’t criticize him at all and instead defended his actions.

“It’s unfortunate how coaches are scrutinized over things like that,” Marchand told the press on Thursday. “There’s a lack of unaccountability nowadays because people can’t handle the heat. You make a mistake like that, you deserve to hear about it.”

Oh man, that’s refreshing… Marchand’s right; people can’t take the heat. 

Marchand made a mistake that a player with his experience and of his caliber should not be making. He knows it, Montgomery knows it, and that’s why he got that tongue-lashing and a small shove. 

I think people had a problem with the shove, but I’ve taken worse hits from shopping carts at Trader Joe’s. 

Marchand handled this situation the right way, especially as the team’s captain. He took accountability for a mistake he made. He didn’t try to shift the focus away from that mistake onto his coach, he just accepted it. I’m sure the same would be expected from anyone in that locker room.

And, oddly enough, Montgomery has a pretty good track record of calling out players at the right time. During the Bruins series against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of last year’s playoffs, Montgomery called out star forward David Pastrnak during a press conference and said that he needed to “step up.”

Well, remember what happened? Pastrnak ended up scoring the OT winner in Game 7 to win that series.

So, maybe Montgomery knows what he’s doing.