Patrice Bergeron said it best when recalling Brad Marchand’s go-ahead goal against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
“That’s kind of how he is. He makes something happen out of nothing,” Bergeron said. “You just try to send him and after that, he finds a way.”
With the matchup stuck in a 2-2 deadlock five minutes into the third period, Marchand lost a draw at the dot. As Patrice Bergeron closed in on the puck carrier along the boards, the biscuit skittered out to Marchand near Boston’s blue line — giving him an avenue to speed down the ice.
Beating Justin Williams in a foot race to the puck, Marchand corralled the puck along the boards and fought off a couple of slashes from the Hurricanes forward before doing just enough to get Carolina goalie Scott Darling out of the crease.
After getting Darling to bite, Marchand closed out the sequence with a nifty wraparound score, tucking the puck into the empty net to give Boston a 3-2 lead and the eventual win.
We can confirm. This is good. #NHLBruins@BMarch63 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/4rqxulOkcj
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 31, 2018
It was the latest in a long list of highlight-reel plays for the skilled winger, who broke through a scoring slump (two goals in 11 games played) with a pair of tallies in Tuesday’s victory.
But for
Bruce Cassidy
, Marchand’s second strike on the night was more than just a clincher for two points.
Flashiness aside, the effort that Marchand put forward to fight off Williams and regain control of the puck at a breakneck pace along the boards was a snapshot of what Boston is looking for from all of its forwards — especially with the younger crop of talent that have the wheels to put together plays like that.
“Perseverance for sure. He’s had a tough go of it lately with offensive chances," Cassidy said. "It was nice to get a couple of good looks, he was in behind their D a few times. The way they play, they’re aggressive. You have to win battles on the wall and chip pucks to space and win the races and he’s good at that.
“I think that’s where some of our guys were behind, early on. They just weren’t willing to compete on a puck. Win it on a wall, chip it to space and use their legs and we have the players to do that, some young players. So it’s disappointing for me, but he came through and hopefully, they learned a lesson from him tonight.”
In what was yet another game in which Boston’s proven scorers did most of the heavy lifting (three combined goals from Marchand and
David Pastrnak
), Cassidy put his top-six group in a blender — with Pastrnak eventually skating on the second line with
David Krejci
and
Danton Heinen
.
Up top,
Joakim Nordstrom
earned reps at right wing alongside Bergeron and Marchand before
Jake DeBrusk
also got a spin with that duo in the third period.
The biggest determinant as to how far this B’s club can go this season likely rests on how much production it can get out of its young core. So far, it’s been Boston’s veterans that have led the way, with DeBrusk, Heinen,
Ryan Donato
and
Anders Bjork
combining for five goals and eight points so far on the year.
Meanwhile, the trio of Bergeron, Pastrnak and Marchand have tallied 22 goals and 50 points during that same stretch.
As expected, Tuesday’s lineup shuffle was more of an indictment on the lack of scoring from some players that Boston is depending on more than anything else. Players like Bjork (8:11 TOI) and Donato (6:40 TOI in 5v5) also saw their time cut following the switches.
“It was more about the other guys in the lineup,” Cassidy said of the moves. “It wasn’t Bergy, Marchy or Pasta. They bring it every night. They might have an off night. So it was more about some other guys who weren’t doing their part. I thought, ‘OK, mix it up a little bit, down to about eight or nine forwards. Let them watch for a while and maybe that will get them excited to play again.’ I don’t know if it worked or not. … It’s a good learning curve for them to understand what it takes.”
As a linemate that has seen Marchand torch opposing defenses and generate scoring chances off of being hard on the puck, Bergeron noted that it’s easy for everyone on Boston’s roster to see how Marchand is rewarded for his relentless work ethic.
“It’s a learning process,” Bergeron said. “We’ve all been through it. You’re trying to set an example as an older guy and I think Marchy is a perfect guy for it. He’s, like you said, he’s tenacious on the puck and he wants it. He wants to bring it to the goal and find a way to do so.”
Even with Tuesday’s victory over Carolina, the B’s still have quite a few holes to address, namely when it comes to addressing the lack of scoring depth that can quickly become a fatal flaw when games really start to matter in the tail end of the season.
For now, all that Cassidy and his staff can do is harp on the need for Boston’s younger players to go all out in puck battles — a scenario that players like DeBrusk and Bjork should win a majority of thanks to their speed and strength.
Fresh off of Marchand’s performance on Tuesday, Cassidy won’t have to dig too deep into the video archives to find the material he’s looking for during pre-scout sessions.
“It’ll be on there Thursday, trust me,” Cassidy said. “That’s an area of the game where, we’re going to be young, you have young legs — you’re going to have to be able to play a certain way against good hockey clubs and Carolina is a good team and they’re going to press up on you.”