'The Good' Brad Marchand Leads The Boston Bruins To Another Win

When Bruins coach Claude Julien spoke of the ‘Good’ Brad Marchand at yesterday’s morning skate he was talking about the type of performance that the 2^nd year forward would submit later that evening against Los Angeles. The ‘Good’ Marchand was on display last night with 2 goals in Boston’s 3-0 over the Kings at the New Garden. The version of Marchand that his coaches like to see resembles the picture he painted last night that included hard skating, excellent stick work, and a relentless presence on the best 2^nd line the NHL.

Players like Marchand are wired differently than others, which clearly has been a positive aspect of Marchand’s game in his time with the Bruins, but as evidence by the $2,500 fine he picked up for slew-footing Pittsburgh’s Matt Niskanen, his biggest blessing could also be his biggest curse. The $2,500 fine prompted his coach to discuss the good & bad sides of his hard chagrining 2^nd year forward,

“I want him to be a good brat, not a bad brat, “That means don’t cross the line, and I thought he did.” (Against the Penguins)

“When it happened, I addressed it right after the period. There are certain things that we all can deal with certain players and what they do, but slew-footing is not something I like to see, whether it’s for us or against us,”

“There are times when he does. Again, we’ve addressed it. I want him to be a good brat, not a bad brat. I used that term with him and that means don’t cross the line and I thought he did that time. His response was, ‘I thought I was going to get away with it.’ That’s not what you want to see from your players.”

After absorbing a hit to his wallet and another blast from his coach Marchand returned to form on last night, and seemed like a more mature player when questioned about the slew-footing fine after keying another Bruins win.

“It was definitely a slew-foot and those are dangerous plays. Guys can get hurt off that. It’s something I shouldn’t have done. They penalized me for it and it’s time to move on now,”

“I realized it was a bit of cheap shot and I wanted to get it over with, I guess,”

Make no mistake of the importance of Brad Marchand as it relates to another run at Lord Stanley’s Cup for the Boston Bruins. It was Marchand who helped the Bruins establish the identity that we’ve seen on display for the last season in a half. He intimidated the Sedin twins in the Cup Finals and backed up his brash play by scoring 11 playoff goals which tied him with the great Jeremy Roenick for the 2^nd most all-time by a rookie.

Known by nicknames such as Nose Face Killah & Little Ball of Hate Brad Marchand has a growing reputation that includes a lot of ‘good’ and a certain amount of ‘bad’, if he can continue to turn in games like he did last night, and learn from mistakes like the one he made in Pittsburgh, the Bruins may very well be Back In The High Life again next spring.