BRIGHTON, Mass. -- Brad Marchand is making good progress, but more work remains before the Boston Bruins left winger is healthy enough to return to game action.
The 34-year-old forward underwent a double hip arthroscopy and labral repair on May 27, with an expected recovery time of about six months.
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He's still on track to come back some time in late November, but it's a fluid process.
"Yeah, as long as there are no setbacks or anything. I don't want to be definitive in what the timetable is, I'm just trying to see how I feel," Marchand said Monday during Media Day.
"I haven't dealt with anything like this before where I feel really good but I still have to be careful with where I'm at. My surgeries I've done before, once I feel good I can go. It's not quite like that with this one, so I got to be careful."
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Marchand is confident the offseason procedure will improve his skating.
"The thing with the surgery is my range should be a lot better, my crossovers and my strides," Marchand explained. "I'm trying to implement that now, so when I get back, I'm not going back to doing short crossovers and I can use the new range I have. Hopefully it will make me faster.
"I'm trying to slow everything down and make sure I build that into my skating so it becomes second nature. And then just trying not to do any tight cutbacks or stops, anything that could grab at some point. It's not worth it right now. It's more about just making sure we follow the process and do what I'm told."
Marchand has led the B's in scoring two consecutive seasons and five of the last six. He's also an elite defensive player and a key contributor to both the power play and penalty kill.
It's hard to envision the Bruins making a deep playoff run next spring without a healthy Marchand.
He's way too important to the team's success to rush back, regardless of how the group is performing while he's out. The Bruins should absolutely take their time with Marchand's rehab and ensure he's fully healthy and ready before returning to game situations.
