Other Bruins Need to Follow Marchand’s Lead

Last weekend, the Boston Bruins were missing Brad Marchand in their two games against the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils as he ended up on the league’s COVID-19 protocols list. It was later revealed that he had false-positive tests that kept him out.

Boston struggled to score in both games. As a matter of fact, they had to rally to beat the Sabres, 3-2, with a pair of third-period goals to avoid being Buffalo’s first win in more than a month. Sunday, Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood made 40 saves as New Jersey shutout the Bruins, 1-0.

Tuesday night, Marchand returned to the lineup against New Jersey and the little ball of hate gave the Bruins what they had been missing in the two games he was out – a jolt of energy.

With the Bruins facing a 3-1 deficit in the second period, he drilled a Devil player behind the net, and New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt came over to take exception to the hit. After a few seconds, the two players dropped the gloves and Marchand swung around and threw Bratt down on his back. Both players got just two minutes for roughing, which turned out to be a big win for the Bruins.

P.K. Subban was called for a penalty shortly after the scuffle and Marchand was able to come out of the box near the end of the 4-on-3. With just 19 seconds remaining on the power play, Marchand took a pass from Patrice Bergeron and buried a shot inside the post to bring the Bruins within 3-2.

Defensemen Jermey Lauzon later in the period gifted Kyle Palmieri a goal with a careless clearing attempt in front of the Boston net, but the Bruins took the energy and goal from Marchand and carried the play in the third period.

Boston would outshoot the Devils, 19-9, in the final 20 minutes and tied the game thanks to goals from their top two defensemen. Charlie McAvoy scored on a rebound midway through the period and Matt Grzelcyk tied the game with four minutes left when his wrist shot found the back of the net inside the left post.

After the Bruins killed a penalty late in the third period, they peppered Blackwood in the first half of overtime with several great chances, but failed to score. After killing another penalty late in overtime, the Bruins won the game in the shootout on goals from Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak, along with two saves from Jaroslav Halak.

In both games over the weekend, the Bruins were missing a spark from someone. Tuesday night, Brad Marchand supplied that spark. Now beginning tonight, the Bruins need to play with the same type of energy that Marchand has and some else, if needed, needs to follow Marchand’s lead.