A softer side of Marchand
‘He’s so good with the puck’
It was like watching Allen Iverson bust a hopeless defender’s ankles with a crossover dribble or Barry Sanders making a blurry-quick cut to daylight so small nobody else even noticed it. Except the difference was when Brad Marchand waved his magic wand for his first of many moves on the play, he was on skates.
If you missed the masterful stick/skate work that ended with Marchand sending a backhand pass to David Pastrnak to the left of the net in the third period, which Pasta turned into the final goal of Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Red Wings at TD Garden, don’t worry. You’ll see it soon enough. It will make its way onto Marchand’s highlight video, a lofty standard to meet.
Once they regained their breaths, spectators roared their approval. Teammates just went about their business.
“I’ve seen him do that in practice,” Charlie Coyle said. “You see that in games, what he pulled off. He’s so good with the puck. He’s so crafty. He can stop on a dime. That stuff doesn’t even excite us anymore because we just know he can do it.”
It was the play of the game, yet not Marchand’s most significant contribution on a two-assist afternoon. His first came after he stole the puck and fed Patrice Bergeron for the game-winning goal midway through the second period.
“I was really happy. I looked up and Bergy was all by himself,” Marchand said. “It worked out well. He made a phenomenal play to pick the puck up the way that he did and finish it off.”
Later, up two goals,
Marchand was able to put a little mustard on the hot dog before feeding Pastrnak.
“It doesn’t happen often but they’re always fun when they do,” Marchand said. “They tend to be against the bottom teams. You don’t really do that against the top teams. It’s always fun when guys make plays and capitalize.”
The bottom team in question had beaten the Bruins in the previous two meetings this season, no source of anxiety, even after the B’s looked up at a 1-0 deficit after the first period.
“Even when they scored that goal, I don’t think we were really worried about it,” Marchand said. “We had it tonight. You can tell. We came out so hard and we really controlled the play the entire way through the game.”
Marchand’s a confident athlete on a confident team.
His opinion of himself is too high to let the number of goals he scores define him.
Pastrnak’s 42nd goal came on Marchand’s 50th assist. Those numbers and the entertaining play accented how smooth a transition it has been from a shot-first to pass-first mentality for Marchand, who ranks third on the B’s with 23 goals, two behind Bergeron.
“For sure, yes, rarely, rarely shoot. Before Pasta kind of got on the line, that’s kind of what I looked to do,” Marchand said. “Whenever I got inside the blueline I was kind of the shooter and it worked, but with Pasta on the line and Bergy, and some of the tendencies we’ve created in our game, they’re the shooters and I’m the passer. I’m fine with that and obviously it’s worked, and a lot of our plays are geared toward that. Obviously, there’s a time and place for shooting and for passing and it’s about trying to read that. They’re both very good at putting themselves in position almost every play to get a shot off. So I’m going to give it to them because they put it in the net.”
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy knows how fortunate he is to have three stars who play so well together.
“What makes them so good is you can’t say, ‘OK, we’re going to take his shot away, his passing away,” Cassidy said. “I think they all can score goals. They can all make plays.”
Cassidy’s players appreciate him as well.
“Huge congrats to him, I didn’t know that,” Marchand said of Cassidy earning his 200th win as an NHL head coach. “He’s really come in and tried to push that offensive game. He’s excited about guys making plays, joining the rush, playing fast. You know, that’s the way the game is nowadays, so he gives us the freedom to make plays and make mistakes, but expects everyone to hold each other to a high standard and be good each night, so he’s really adapted well. He’s come in and he’s been confident. He knows how he wants to coach and how he wants guys to play and holds everyone to that standard. He’s been really good so far and I’m sure he’s only going to grow and become better and better.”
Cassidy’s more candid than most coaches, and the Bruins have leaders with thick enough skin to know that’s a good thing.
“That’s what you want,” Marchand said. “You want to know the way it is. You don’t want him to lie to you and give you false information. When you know the truth and you’re able to make changes it allows you to work toward what he wants you to do. If you don’t know certain things, how do you expect to play within his guidelines? Honesty’s good. It’s what you need in this game and it’s worked so far.”
Everything’s working for the Bruins these days and so often, Marchand, Pastrnak and Bergeron are in on the good stuff.