Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand Named NHL Third Star Of The Week
After last night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, it didn’t feel like the Boston Bruins were getting any love from the NHL or the hockey gods. A few bad bounces, a total lack of puck luck (not to mention a little questionable goaltending), and some lapses in defense caused the B’s to fall to the Wings 6-5.
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Marchand has had a hot hand as of late, and the NHL decided to honor him for his work over the last several games. Earlier this week, the NHL named Boston’s Little Ball of Hate Third Star of The Week honors. (Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Lundqvist were the league’s first and second stars, respectively.) He earned that for putting up four goals and three assists in the last four games.
Brad Marchand‘s recent run has certainly gotten him a lot of attention. Marchand has been white-hot since he came back from his suspension. He’s scored in his last seven games, and twelve out of the last thirteen. Overall, he’s put up sixteen points in that time span. Marchand’s stretch rivals the run that Teemu Selanne had back in 1998-99. The last time any Bruins player had any kind of stretch was Cam Neely, and that puts Marchand in some pretty serious company.
The usually cocky Marchand was quite humble about his most recent honor.
“To be honest, I’m trying not to think about it a whole lot,” said Marchand of his recent accolade. “It’s nice, but I’m just trying to prepare the same way and focus more on working hard and playing the right way, and when you do that, then good things happen.”
Bruins bench boss Claude Julien is obviously happy with Marchand’s recent work. Claude Julien has been coaching Marchand his entire NHL career, and has been pleased with the progression he has made from full-time pest to full-time dynamo for the Black and Gold.
“What people don’t see about Brad Marchand is how well he prepares for every game,” Julien said. “And that’s since the first day he walked in our dressing room.”
“You can see him clowning around, having fun with the guys, but when he comes to a game, he prepares — and he might be playing soccer there, but the rest of the time, he’s in his own zone. And he’s stretching and he’s doing his stuff, has his earpieces on and just listens to whatever he listens to, but he’s totally focused. He does a great job of preparing. He’s a great example for young guys to look at when they look at preparation.”
Marchand wanted to be a leader this season, and he was briefly awarded an ‘A’. If he keeps up this level of his performance, he could find himself wearing the ‘A’ again before the end of the season.