Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand Had Surgery In Offseason
The Boston Bruins were fortunate to learn one of their top goal scores from last season will be healthy come training camp.
Left winger Brad Marchand reportedly underwent elbow surgery this offseason to repair torn tendons in his right elbow which had pestered the forward towards the latter stages of the 2014 season.
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The 27-year-old has taken part in informal practices in Wilmington and expects to be ready for the start of camp on Sept. 17. Marchand released that the injury took place around the start of Boston’s playoff run back in 2014. The Bruins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in the Eastern Conference First Round and fell to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games during the Eastern Conference Second Round. Marchand failed to score in both series but managed to manufacture five assists with a plus-4 rating and 28 shots.
Marchand was still able to net 24 goals last season, pacing the team. He finished with 42 points as well (24-18 – 42).
“There were days where I couldn’t even hold my stick,” Marchand told NHL.com. “It was always tough to shoot. There’d be times throughout the year where it was good. But when it was bad it was tough to even … like I wasn’t shooting in practice and stuff like that. So it definitely affected my game a bit. So it was good to get it done”.
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The injury was reportedly hockey-related causing Marchand to wear a cast for six weeks followed by a splint for roughly four weeks.
“But I just couldn’t do any weights or anything like that for a while. So it was frustrating,” Marchand said. “With a long summer like that you want to try to train to get in shape and I was rehabbing for the first couple months. But it’s feeling good now. I’m very happy I got it done and hopefully it’ll come back stronger than before.”
Boston could have used a more consistent Marchand last season as the year seemed to spiral downward with Florida lurking behind the Bruins for nearly the entire second half of the season. Marchand’s injury was not nearly as severe as it was back prior to the 2014 playoffs, but the injury did linger this season infrequently.
“It wasn’t as bad throughout [2014-15] as it was before the [2014] playoffs,” Marchand said. “But it definitely still bothered me at times. It was more of a nuisance. Some days I wouldn’t be able to work on things and it was frustrating.”
Marchand nearly matched his 2013-14 season total of 25 goals. Last season was challenging for the forward. He struggled periodically at finding a rhythm on offense. When the Bruins needed him most towards the end of the season, the winger failed to produce. Marchand had gone 15 games without a goal before scoring in the Bruins’ final two regular season games.
Once he fully recovers come camp, the likelihood Marchand’s game drastically changes positively is slim. The injury was more relevant in 2014 than it was last season as Marchand stated, yet still managed to play inconsistent hockey with less overall production than previous years. The irony is Marchand led the team in scoring last season. The Bruins have conflict on offense if Marchand is their top goal scorer. Those issues were addressed this offseason with acquisitions of Jimmy Hayes and Matt Beleskey.
“You don’t know what approach you’re going to take to switch things up,” Marchand said. “And you saw, we lost some good players and brought in some good players. And guys that you thought could be here for a long time moved on. In this game you’re never safe, and especially when you don’t have a good year. Anything could happen. So I think we were definitely all worried going into the summer. But everyone’s fortunate to be here and looking forward to the season.”
Follow Christopher Bokum on Twitter @ChrisBokum