Brad Marchand didn’t play his best in the run-in of the regular season. He was gritty as always, but he had trouble scoring the number of goals he wanted, and from March 11 to April 9, he didn’t score a single goal.
He eventually ended his 16-game goal drought just in time for the playoffs, and on Monday, in Game 1 of the first-round series against the Florida Panthers, he continued with it.
Boston Bruins are missing leader and captain Patrice Bergeron, who suffered an upper-body injury in the regular season finale against the Montreal Canadiens. That means Brad Marchand’s contribution on and off the ice, in the locker room, is even more important.
And Marchand sure got off to a great start in this year’s playoffs, where the Bruins is the No. 1 seed.
Ahead of this year’s playoffs, only one Bruin had scored more than 50 goals in the playoffs, in the form of Cam Neely. But when Marchand scored in the 3-1 win Monday night against the Florida Panthers, he became the second one. He joined Cam Neely (55) as the only player to score at least 50 playoff goals, and there’s a good chance Marchand passes Neely for the record, as he’ll only need six goals to achieve it.
Marchand’s goal, which came off the assists from Charlie McAvoy and Dmitry Orlov, was the game-winning goal, and it’s so important for the Bruins to get him going.
And perhaps, it wasn’t a coincidence that Marchand played so great on Monday and contributed with a goal. Before the game, Marchand felt he needed to do something to get him going in the playoffs, with his recent goal drought in mind.
Cameras caught Marchand faking his death, and he needed his teammates to bring him back to life with a fake defibrillator. It is unclear if it meant he wanted to revive as a new player, but it was a really funny move, and we’re so glad cameras could pick it up.
