Marchand shoots straight
Forward looking for more goals
Brad Marchand has never shied from shooting his shot. The Bruins top line winger leads the team in assists and has been the playmaker for one of the most electric lines in hockey, dishing feeds to Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, both having strong scoring starts. But the three-time 30-plus goal scorer hasn’t totally gotten away from his shooting game. “The game happens so quick, it’s mostly a read and react kind of thing,” said Marchand. “If your first mentality is to shoot, it creates more of a threat. There’s always an opportunity for the rebound.” Marchand scored twice in Carolina earlier in the week, one from a snipe in the circle off a long feed from Bergeron, and the other a hustle play where he wrapped it around the net for the B’s go-ahead tally. He admitted he changed his mentality to shoot a bit more, and it paid off. “When you get more pucks to the net, more opportunities create themselves,” he said. “I think that needs to be a little bit more of my game, not looking for the pass every time. It creates another threat, if they know I pass every time they can cheat on that.” His line leads the team in ice time by a big margin. They each skate more than 18 minutes per game, at least more than a minute more than any other forward. Part of that is due to their prevalence on special teams, with the top line working as essentially the top power play unit and Marchand and Bergeron leading the penalty kill. The team doesn’t feel it’s too much for them to take. “The first month, I’ve noticed minutes are up for all the top lines,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. “Schedules are lighter, guys are fresher. I think teams don’t want to chase the standings, so I’ve seen it with top lines with Dallas, Edmonton. I think it’s kind of the norm.” The extra ice time hasn’t led to more shooting for Marchand, but that’s partially due to his passing it off to the hot hand. His shots on net percentage (45.8) heading into last night is the lowest of his career by 10 points. Before his five-shot output in Carolina, he had combined for four shots in the previous three games. “I’ve known Brad a long time, you know he’s going to shoot eventually so you figure that was going to come back,” said Cassidy. “Hopefully he finds the right balance. He knows Pasta’s hot and Bergy’s hot right now, so he figures he’s going to be the playmaker on the line for a while. Between those three, that could change all year every three weeks, who does the passing and who does the scoring, because they can all do both.” Being an unselfish player in the passing department is a part of Marchand’s game, but of late, more shooting and more ice time, if anything, is keeping him more in tune. “It’s nice to be involved in the game,” said Marchand. “The more I play the more involved I feel.”
International flavor
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league planned on heading back to Europe multiple times next season. Earlier in the week, the Florida Panthers played the Winnipeg Jets in Finland in front of a sellout crowd of over 13,000. Locations planned for next season include a season opener in Prague, Czech Republic, along with stops in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.
Quick trigger
The Montreal Canadiens broke a record on Thursday night by scoring two goals in two seconds. With 21.8 seconds left in the third period, Max Domi netted the game-winning goal against the Capitals. Two seconds of game clock later, Joel Armia slapped the puck into an empty net for a two-goal advantage, and the quickest time between goals in league history. The previous record was set in the 1934-35 season when the St. Louis Eagles scored three seconds apart off the sticks of Frank Jerwa and Joe Lamb. The Minnesota Wild in 2004 and the New York Islanders in 2016 also scored three seconds apart in a game.
Youth served
For the fourth straight season, teenagers have scored at least 25 goals 191 games into the regular season. Heading into Friday night’s action, 28 of the league’s goals had been scored by players younger than 20 years old. That group includes all of the top four draft picks from this year’s draft: Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo), Andrei Svechikov (Carolina), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Montreal), and Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa).