After Max Pacioretty was hit into the turnbuckle in Montreal by Zdeno Chara two weeks ago, the Canadiens' winger was diagnosed with a "severe concussion" and a fractured vertebra. He's since said that he is not feeling any aftereffects of the concussion, and Habs coach Jacques Martin said Pacioretty could return for the playoffs.

That's good news for everyone, but it has perhaps exposed Montreal for reporting the injury as worse than it actually was in an effort to get the captain and ice-time leader of the division-rival Bruins suspended.

Bruins winger Mark Recchi, who's been playing in the NHL since 1988, was asked on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger and Massarotti Show if he was bothered by the Canadiens' "embellishment" of the injury.

"Well, obviously, yeah," Recchi answered. "There's an injury -- he does have, obviously, a fractured vertebra, but the concussion was really a non-factor. Maybe [for] a day or two, he felt it, and then he was fine a couple days later.

"I believe, yeah, [the Canadiens] were trying to get Zdeno suspended and they embellished it a little bit," Recchi added of the severe concussion. "I guess they were trying to do what they could to get him suspended. I think the league sent the message that it was a hockey play, and that's the most important thing that people have to understand."

Recchi said that the league is obviously very serious about protecting its players, as evidenced by the suspension handed to Matt Cooke that will be from anywhere between 14 and 17 games.

"We all know [Chara's hit] was an accident, and that's the bottom line," Recchi said.

Recchi also discussed Pacioretty's message on Twitter from March 14, which was six days after the hit. In it, Pacioretty shared that he had just seen the movie Hall Pass.

"We're very thankful that he is OK and he's getting better," Recchi said. "We know he was [tweeting] at a movie four or five days later. Obviously, if you have a concussion, a bad concussion like they said, you're not going to be in a movie [theater]."

After Thursday's win, he admitted why he made those statements. It wasn't a matter of questioning Pacioretty's character, but rather an attempt to help ease the pressure on Chara.

"I've got to be honest with you guys, I wanted to take the heat off of Zee for a day," Recchi said. "I'm a big boy and I think anybody that knows me knows that I have great respect for the Montreal organization. I played five years there. I have great respect for [Canadiens team physician] Dr. [David] Mulder and the medical staff there. I took the pressure off of Zee. In 22 years I've respected all my teammates, all the players I've played against. My record's shown that."

But that record now has a very black mark attached to it. One that will be hard to look past for many fans despite Recchi's otherwise spotless Hall-of-Fame resume.

"I did what I had to do," Recchi said. "Zee has taken a lot of heat, and I felt it was very important to get some focus elsewhere. I'm sorry if it hurt some people, but at the same time I think everybody knows my reputation for 22 years. ... I felt the need to protect our captain. It's important. That will be the end of it and you won't hear anything said by me anymore.