To be clear, when I said that about his "play" I meant the shitty stuff. The antics.His play speaks for itself. His antics (spearing, slew-footing, etc.) are what would need to be defended, but you take the good with the bad.
How do you feel about Ovechkin? Kucherov? Tom Wilson? If they're on your team you love them. If they aren't on your team you hate them.
Same deal. Though of those, I'd only rank Tom Wilson up there with Marchand. That said, I suspect the ranking of guys like those are going to really depend on if they are on teams in your team's division/conference and you run into them a lot (esp in the playoffs). You aren't going to find anyone who was a Canucks fan ranking Ovechkin over Marchand as a rat after the 2011 finals. But you could easily find other fans who rank the same players differently.
Would I love them on my team? No, I wouldn't. Will I put up with and cheer for a dude who seems like a crappy human being on my team? On some level, sure. We all do. The shine has really come off Russ now that he's off the seahawks. But a dirty player who puts the game and other players at risk? No way. ESPECIALLY someone who does that consistently all through their career. It's one thing to get heated and make a stupid mistake then learn from it. We've all been there. But that's not Marchand (or Wilson or Ovechkin etc). These are guys who think the rules don't apply to them and it doesn't matter if they end someone's career to get the W.