Marchand was suspended five games by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Wednesday for elbowing New Jersey Devils forward Marcus Johansson during Boston's 3-2 win Tuesday. Marchand is eligible to return Feb. 7 at the New York Rangers. Johansson was placed on injured reserve with a concussion.
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"I've been trying to play a certain way for a while now, and it was never my intent to get into a situation like this and to injure Marcus," Marchand said. "Hopefully he has a full healthy recovery very quickly. I let my teammates down, I know that, and I let my organization down, so I have to be better, there's no question.
"The last thing I want to do is do anything to hurt the team and that's obviously what I've done here. It wasn't what I was out trying to do. We have a great team and they're going to battle hard and do everything they can to win the games. I'll be there rooting them on, but I've put my team at a disadvantage again and I feel very bad about that."
Boston is on a 17-game point streak (13-0-4) heading into the game against the Senators (7:30 p.m. ET, RDS2, TSN5, NESN, NHL.TV).
Marchand has 50 points (21 goals, 29 assists) in 38 games and will make his second consecutive all-star appearance.
The 29-year-old has been suspended six times for a total of 19 games in his NHL career. NHL rules do not prohibit someone under League suspension from playing in the All-Star Game. Marchand was selected to play for the Atlantic Division team.
All-Star Weekend begins Saturday with the 2018 GEICO NHL All-Star Skills Competition (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVA Sports). The 3-on-3 round-robin tournament will take place at Amalie Arena on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
