Following his team’s 2-1 Game 5 loss to the Boston Bruins Tuesday night in a close-out game, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice gave somewhat of an odd joke about Bruins forward and captain Brad Marchand, who didn’t even play in the game.
Maurice said that ahead of Game 6, Friday night at the TD Garden, reporters are going to have some investigative journalism to do about whether or not Marchand plays in Game 6 and “how many sips of water bottle Brad Marchand takes'' in practice.
Marchand has not been on the ice since the second period of Game 3 after he took what appeared to be a punch to the head in the opening period by the Panthers' Sam Bennett. Was it dirty or not? Who knows, but it’s safe to say that the Florida forward has a bit of a history of doing that (see Matthew Knies of the Toronto Maple Leafs last spring in the second round) and getting away with it.
Maurice’s comments made the rounds on social media and it apparently caught the eye of Marchand and the Bruins social media team.
Boston Bruins X account posts picture of Brad Marchand sipping water
Thursday morning, the Black and Gold took the ice at Warrior Ice Arena for practice ahead of Friday night’s game and the Bruins X account posted a picture of Marchand sipping from a water bottle during a break.
Good to see ya, Cap ©️ pic.twitter.com/ertolyXjZO
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 16, 2024
Coincidence? I’m guessing not.
Knowing Marchand and his sly way of trolling whether it’s on social media or on the mic following Boston’s 2-1 Game 7 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, you get the feeling that this is a classic troll job toward Maurice.
As for Marchand’s status for Game 6, according to coach Jim Montgomery, he looked good in practice but “still has boxes to check’’ ahead of tomorrow night.