Ceiling still high for Marchand
Since childhood, Brad Marchand has often received an essential piece of advice from his dad: Aim high. Don’t be content with pretty good, try to be great.
It’s a philosophy that has driven the Bruins winger throughout his career: As good a player as you may be, try to be better. If you have a nice, productive season don’t be satisfied just to equal it the following year — be more productive.
If you’re a guy who scores 20 goals, don’t just fall back on the stock NHL answer, “I’d like to score 20 again next year, maybe 25.”
Tell the world you want to get 40. And believe it.
In the final week or so of the 2016-17 regular season, Kevin Marchand wanted his son to close things out in style.
“When I was getting close to 40 and there were like five games left, he was like, ‘You’re gonna get 50,’ ” Marchand said with a laugh at the Bruins’ breakup day yesterday at Warrior Ice Arena.
“That’s just kind of his mindset: ‘ Don’t just shoot for the expected, try to be better than that.’ He’s always pushed that on me. He doesn’t want us ever to be comfortable or complacent.” Marchand showed it this season, after enjoying a breakthrough year in 2015-16 (37 goals, 23 assists). He returned to deliver his best and most consistent season, putting up 39 goals and 46 assists and a plus-18 in 80 games, to rank sixth in the NHL in scoring and easily lead all left wingers.
Some voters may go for Alex Ovechkin out of habit, but it will be an unfair oversight if Marchand is not named to the NHL first All-Star team. The Bruins in recent seasons have seen Tim Thomas (twice), Tuukka Rask and Zdeno Chara (twice) make the first All-Star squads, but not since 1973-74 (Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge) has a forward made it.
“I didn’t even think about that,” Marchand said. “The players around the league who deserve that, there’s a lot more of them than just me. I’m not going to look too much into it. We’ll see, I guess. It would be a tremendous honor, but I’m not going to get my hope up or anything. Maybe I’ll get lucky. Who knows?”
After this dream year, how high will Marchand aim for next season? Well, even with his dad’s credo, it’s tough to set a goal of doing a whole lot better.
“Just more, I guess,” he said of his goal. “Actually, I guess it’s just to try and maintain it. You don’t expect to have a year like this every year, or even the last two seasons. So I’m just going to pray that I don’t go down too much. Hopefully I get some bounces and the team does well.”
After a breakout performance playing with Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby on Team Canada’s first line at the World Cup of Hockey last summer, Marchand would be a likely lock for a spot on the Olympic team if the NHL sends players to Korea next year.
As of now, it looks as though the NHL will not do so, but Marchand is praying that changes.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” he said. “There’s still a lot of time before it’s actually not going to happen. We’ll see how it plays out. I don’t think that was actually the (final decision) to say that we’re not going. So we’ll just see how it plays out here in the next few months.”
After watching so many talented youngsters step in and play well for his team — and knowing that more are on the way — Marchand is very confident the B’s will build on this season and be better next year.
“I think we’re kind of headed down the path that (management) wants us to be going down,” he said. “The management team put together a plan, and that’s where we are right now.
“I thought it was great this year that the young guys were able to get a taste of what the playoffs are like. Moving forward next year, we should have a lot more youth in our lineup — some really good players who are going to help our team. With that and the experience that some young guys gained this year, we should have a really good team next year. I’m really excited, because I think we’re going to be better than we were this year.”
What would Kevin Marchand say? Why not aim high? Win the Stanley Cup.