Marchand Leading by Example
(Photo: M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire)
The Boston Bruins identity has been questioned a lot this season as they struggle to string together wins. The roster itself has become shorter in height since the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning roster. Gone are the likes of Shawn Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Adam McQuaid, and Johnny Boychuk. All of them were tall, willing to finish a check and refused to back down. Among other attributes, Bruins hockey has always come with a side of grit, though there have certainly been some games where the Bruins have appeared to be manhandled in the last couple of seasons.
Sunday night when Boston played host to the Vancouver Canucks, whom they beat in 2011 for the Stanley Cup, it did look like the Canucks were not only controlling the play but also the tempo of the game. Vancouver notched an early power play goal in the first period from Tanner Pearson and the Bruins Anton Blidh tied things up a little over two minutes later and took that tie into the first intermission.
The second period saw the Canucks take the lead just a little more than halfway through the middle frame. And that’s when the diminutive Brad Marchand decided to spark his team. After the first period the Bruins had eight hits, with two of them from Brandon Carlo and one each from Mike Reilly, Nick Foligno, Curtis Lazar, Marchand, Blidh, and David Pastrnak. By the end of the second Boston had added nine more hits. Marchand adding three to his tally, Jakub Zboril had two and Derek Forbort, Blidh, Karson Kuhlman and Tomas Nosek each with one.
The end of the game saw the Bruins with 28 hits total, including three in the third from Trent Frederic, a fifth from Marchand and all but four Bruins getting at least one hit in the game. The energy that began with Marchand in that second period sparked the team on the bench and they came out in the third more closely resembling the Bruins teams that get wins, which they did. Marchand notched the tying goal while the Bruins were on the power play almost midway through the third and then he got the primary assist on Pastrnak’s go-ahead power play goal with 3:24 remaining in regulation.
“When things aren’t going your way you need to create energy. We’ve got to continue to rely on the system and you know, hits don’t always present themselves, but a few just happened to in that [second] period. But we definitely didn’t play the way that we can in the second which, you know, we haven’t been able to string together too many real good 60-minute efforts. But I think we’ve got to be happy with the way that we were resilient in the third. It’s something that’s been a strong suit for our team for a long time and we did a great job getting back to that and not folding; again, being resilient. So, it’s a big win,” Marchand said.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy expressed a desire to see Marchand’s physicality rub off on the other players and mentioned that Marchand’s hits were just one of the many ways that he helps push the Bruins to a win. Based on the number of players that stepped up and began finishing their checks, it appears that indeed the message had been received and understood by Marchand’s teammates.
And while the team may have a number of smaller players that doesn’t mean that they can’t get physical.
“Well, I think it’s just, it needs to be and it is something that’s been in our organization. It’s a staple of… part of the Bruins culture and way is to play hard all the way through. And the game just in general is getting away from that but, you know, the good teams still play hard and finish their checks and make it hard on opposing teams and we’re no different. But again, that’s… every guy, regardless of their size, can finish their check. And again, sometimes they just they present themselves more than other nights and tonight was one of those nights,” said Marchand.
Momentum can swing in the game as a result of a variety of different plays and for the Bruins on Sunday night it came from Marchand’s physicality that built an energy throughout the team.
