With Bergeron and Chara out, Bruins desperately need Marchand to step up as a leader

Brad Marchand’s sweater went through a slight alteration ahead of Saturday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. 

Donning an “A” in wake of Patrice Bergeron’s injury against the Dallas Stars on Friday, Marchand served as the next man up on a Bruins roster suddenly short of on-ice authority.

For the foreseeable future, Boston will take to the ice without its captain, with Zdeno Chara out for at least a month after suffering an MCL injury on Wednesday against Colorado.

Up front, Boston will be without its key cog on its top line and penalty kill, with Bergeron set to be re-evaluated in a month after suffering both a rib and sternoclavicular injury against Dallas.

So for now, the onus will fall on alternate captains such as David Krejci, David Backes and the recently appointed Marchand to fill the void left by Chara and Bergeron as Boston’s go-to leaders both on and off the ice.

On a night in which a decimated Bruins roster gutted its way to two points against the Coyotes on Saturday night, Bruce Cassidy harped on the key contributors in the win — another standout showing from Jaroslav Halak, a rookie netting his first goal in Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, an impassioned response through the final 20 minutes of play.

But Cassidy also took the time to laud the play of Marchand — who logged the most time on ice of any B’s forward (21:37) while chipping in with the primary assist on Jake DeBrusk’s eventual game-winning tally at 2:45 in the opening stanza.

But rather than single out Marchand’s production on the ice, Cassidy opted to focus on what the veteran winger brought to the club away from the usual determinants such as goals or assists.

"Loved Marchy's leadership on the bench, his chatter in the room,” Cassidy said. “Contributed to a big goal, big penalty kill job at the end, buzzing up there, disrupting the flow of giving them any chance of getting in our end or really limiting it.

“Really pleased with his effort after last night — he was frustrated. I think tonight, he was real focused on just being the best player on the ice."

When he’s on, Marchand is one of the most dynamic wingers in the league, with the 30-year-old skater on pace for his third 80-point campaign in a row.

And with Bergeron and Chara out of commission — along with most of Boston’s regular blue line — the Black and Gold are going to need Marchand to shoulder plenty of responsibilities in order to keep Boston afloat during this stretch.



But when it comes to Marchand, the biggest key isn’t going to be if he can produce on the ice. Rather, it’s just staying out there.

With numerous suspensions, fines and reprimands on his docket, Marchand has never been one to stray away from toeing the line between an elite winger and an agitator — with the veteran currently leading the league in penalty minutes by a significant margin with 66 on the season.

Most of those minutes were accrued thanks to three 10-minute misconducts levied against Marchand this season — all games in which the Bruins lost.

As Cassidy noted during the end of the 2017-18 season, the Bruins know that Marchand will always play with an edge whenever he’s out competing. It’s the split-second decisions that often come after a questionable hit or call that put Marchand in hot water — and usually off the ice.

Given his reputation around the league, Marchand rarely gets the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a questionable slash or high stick — as evidenced on Friday against Dallas and earlier this month against Nashville when Marchand was sent to the sin bin for phantom calls on Ben Bishop and Colton Sissons, respectively.

A competitor like Marchand has the right to be irate about these calls, but his response — whether it be dropping to the ice twice in front of the officials in Nashville or raising a makeshift white flag from the box in Dallas — needs to be better.

For as much as Marchand thrives on being a thorn in the side of the opposition, the Bruins need him to be on the ice as much as possible over the next couple of weeks, especially with Bergeron out for an extended stretch.

While Boston’s secondary scoring has shown signs of breaking out with players like Jake DeBrusk gaining steam, the Black and Gold need their big guns to continue producing in order to keep pace in a cutthroat Atlantic Division.

Now, will a Brad Marchand with a newly minted “A” on his sweater now be a frontrunner for a Lady Byng Trophy a few months down the road?

Probably not.

But at the very least, the Bruins need Marchand to do everything in his power to stay on the ice if Boston is going to successfully trudge through this latest run of injuries.

"I think it's crucial right now. … Even just to stay focused on the ice for his own personal success and team success and not let the officials frustrate him if he feels there's a call not going his way,” Cassidy said. “It affects the whole team — now he's sitting 10 (minutes), we've got to use guys in certain situations that he should be out there as a dominant player. So it's both. Both sides of the coin right now.

“I'm glad he took it to heart the other today. He's going to have to regroup on Wednesday with the same sort of approach. And we would like to see him do that for the rest of his career so he can not have to answer some of these questions, myself included, but that's Marchy. He likes to stir the drink a little and hopefully some of the 10 minutes — most of them are behind him now.”