Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand Earns First Star Honors
The National Hockey League announced today that Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week. The Bruins winger and pest extraordinaire has been on a tear this last week. Marchand had three consecutive multi-point games for the Black and Gold. He’s put up six points overall (four goals) and put up a +3 rating. Currently Marchand is tied for third in overall points for the Bruins with nine, and is second on the team for goals with five.
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Brad Marchand has been a cornerstone for the Bruins team for the last few years. Granted, he can’t do what Patrice Bergeron does on the ice every night (Frankly, who can?). He doesn’t have the size or power of a Milan Lucic. What he does have is the extraordinary skill of crawling under another person’s skin and make them make mental mistakes. He’s more than a pure goal scorer for the team (but he certainly does his job in that category).
This is Marchand’s seventh season in the NHL. He’s already got a Stanley Cup on his resume, and has the potential to earn another one before his career is done. Over the last few seasons, we’ve seen an evolution in the 27-year forward’s game. He’s cut back on the chirping and questionable hits (including the one that put an off-balance Dmitry Kulikov into the boards in their game against the Florida Panthers). He’s grown up on the ice, and become a three-zone, two-way hockey player.
Marchand could now be defined as a player playing a more ‘Bergeronian’ type of game. It makes sense. Marchand has been tied to Patrice Bergeron for the majority of his Bruins career. (Early on his Bruins career, he was briefly a member of the ‘Merlot Men’.)
Congratulations to Boston’s “Little Ball of Hate” for receiving this week’s honors.