BOSTON – One of the truly underplayed storylines of the final few weeks for the Bruins has been the struggles of Brad Marchand.
The Bruins left winger’s final numbers for this season are downright spectacular with 34 goals and a career-high 85 points in 69 games. If he’d been able to stay healthy and avoid getting suspended, the Nose Face Killah certainly would have been a bigger part of the Hart Trophy conversation here at the end of the season.
But Marchand, along with David Pastrnak, Kevan Miller, David Krejci and Torey Krug, was one of the few mainstays to become a workhorse over the last six weeks with injuries hitting the B’s lineup hard in March. That seems to have caught up to him over the last couple of weeks as Marchand finished with just one point and a minus-8 rating in five games during the month of April, and he admitted after Sunday’s disappointing 4-2 loss to Florida that a rest would do him some good.
“Rest up. A little rest would be nice with that hard last month-and-a-half,” said Marchand, when asked what would do them the most good to prepare for Toronto in the first round. “It has been a long month-and-a-half. We’ve played a lot of games, a lot of hard games too, not games that you can kind of coast through, everyone’s battling for playoff spots and trying to figure out positioning . . .
“But that’s not an excuse. We messed up an opportunity to jump to a higher seed. But it is what it is and we’ll move forward.”
Marchand’s entire top line combined for a ghastly minus-20 during five games in the month of April, and it’s clear Marchand, Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron weren’t clicking at anywhere close to maximum efficiency headed into the postseason. It was to the point where Bruce Cassidy even called out the top line a bit between the first and second period of Saturday night’s win over the Carolina Hurricanes for their lack of spacing and support. The Bruins won that game, of course, but Marchand again looked “off” on Sunday while trying to do too much by himself at times, and at times looking like his mind and his hands weren’t always on the same page.
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“Marchy and Pasta and Bergy have all played a lot of hockey,” said Cassidy. “They’ve been checked hard all year. Right now, the puck’s not bouncing their way. Marchy looks like he’s passing when he should be shooting and shooting when he should be passing, and he has the puck a lot, so clearly that’s not the issue,. It’s just, I think, right now, he could use a breather and get reset here against Toronto. I think it will be the best thing for them right now.
“We’re going to need them to be our best players. I trust them. I have no doubt they will be. They usually come through. They did the other night against Ottawa, got a big power play goal tonight again. So they’ll be there. It’s just, yes, I do believe, mentally, right now, they could use a break.”
The good news in all of this: The Bruins should be recharged and more closely resemble the team they’ve been all season when they take the ice against the Maple Leafs on Thursday night for Game 1 of the playoffs. At that point the regular season games in April should be a fading memory for everybody involved, and the harsh, focused spotlight will instead be on Marchand’s one and only goal in his last 18 playoff games over the last four years.
Then it will be up to No. 63 to thoroughly change that conversation and bust through with a playoff performance that’s a little closer to the game-breaking, elite player he’s become over the last few seasons.
