At times, Connor Clifton fancies himself more like a bull in a china shop — rather than a wide-eyed rookie thrust into a Stanley Cup title run.
And on Thursday night, he saw red. Most of it on the form of the scarlet adorned on the back of Jordan Staal’s sweater.
Much more willing to cannonball into a scrum than dip his toe into the water, Clifton’s natural inclination to get involved in a play has helped the 24-year-old defenseman remain in the lineup this spring, and in the seconds following a boarding call against Staal, Clifton was ready to act.
No sooner had Staal dropped Chris Wagner into the end boards than Clifton entered the fracas, wrapping his arm around the Hurricanes pivot — poised to administer some post-whistle retaliation.
But, with the on-ice official's arm already raised to signal a boarding call, the Bruins received some quick-thinking intervention — from an unlikely pacifist.
Fair to say, it’s been an eventful couple of days from Brad Marchand.
A model citizen for most of the 2018-19 regular season, the pest mentality still ingrained in Marchand’s DNA occasionally resurfaced during the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Columbus.
Whether it be stomping on Cam Atkinson’s stick or delivering a rabbit punch to the back of Scott Harrington’s head, the pugnacious winger once again found himself in the crosshairs of the national media and most NHL circles for his conduct against the Blue Jackets.
It was a familiar storyline, as it looked as though Marchand was struggling to toe the line between being the effective agitator prone to going overboard, and the superstar winger who tallied 100 points on the year.
His curt responses during an on-ice interview following Monday’s series-winner over the Jackets — and his efforts to channel Marshawn Lynch in the locker room post game — didn’t exactly ingratiate him to those skeptical that he has truly put an end to his pesky style of play.
But on Thursday, with Clifton ready to drop the gloves with Staal, it was Marchand that served as mediator. Well, as close to a mediator as one can be during an on-ice scrum, as he grabbed Clifton — with Staal already in a headlock — and shoved the B’s defenseman out the way.
“I would expect that, he’s a leader,” Clifton said of Marchand’s involvement. “Obviously we had a power play and it was a bad hit but he stopped me pretty fast.”
It was quick thinking from Marchand — as Boston’s was already in line for another crack at the man advantage. Had Clifton tried to get a few licks in against Staal, it would have negated any 5v4 opportunity heading Boston’s way.
But with Clifton ushered away, no additional infractions were recorded, and Boston went back to work on the power play — looking for any sort of spark in what was a 2-1 Hurricanes lead in the early going of the third stanza. Marchand's shove paid dividends 1:36 later, as Marcus Johansson buried a netfront bid past Petr Mrazek to knot things up and provide a shot in the arm to a power play that entered the night with the best success rate (28.6%) of any team in the postseason.
Johansson's tally provided some immediate carry-over — as Patrice Bergeron cashed in on Boston's second special-teams stint of the period just 28 seconds later to give the Bruins the lead for good in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Marchand was credited with the primary helper on Bergeron's eventual game-winner, but it was the winger's situational awareness following Staal's boarding call that drew most of the praise from Boston's bench boss.
"He’s turning over a new leaf, eh?" Bruce Cassidy said of Marchand with a chuckle. "Listen, he’s been in these big games. He’s a Stanley Cup Champion, so he understands maybe a little more than meets the eye sometimes. There’s a time and a place where you really have to be disciplined. I mean, you have to be disciplined at all times, but there’s certainly other times where you really have to put yourself in check, so it was great for him to do that.
"It helped us, right? We had the early penalties, so he was starting to get frustrated. We saw that with (Sean) Kuraly’s penalty, and then we kind of settled in and realized that tough is winning pucks battles, toughness is going to the front of the net, toughness is blocking shots. It’s not how you react in a scrum, so we figured out eventually, and they took some. Good for Brad. We’ve put an “A” on his shirt at times this year for a reason, and I’m glad to see that he made that decision tonight with a younger guy.
For as much flak as Marchand has received as of late — he's far from the emboldened, 22-year-old skater who made a name for himself by using Daniel Sedin's face as speed bag during the 2011 Cup Final.
Even with 96 penalty minutes accrued during the 2018-19 regular season, Marchand managed to remain out of the league's doghouse for most of the year — spending just 18 minutes in the sin bin over the final 44 games of the year. During that same stretch of time, the once-designated fourth liner generated a whopping 64 points.
While a few unfortunate tendencies have reared their heads in the playoffs (10 penalty minutes in 14 games), Cassidy chalks some of it up to the edge that Marchand still plays with.
It helped Marchand carve out a role for himself in NHL — and with the forward tallying league-high 15 points so far this postseason — it's helping fuel the Bruins' campaign toward hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup.
"I think it always brings out the best in Brad," Cassidy said of Marchand playing with an edge. "It doesn’t always have to be antics, either, could just be hard, competitive, two teams going after each other. ... March is going to come through, or it won’t be for lack of effort. Sometimes they’ve got good players too that are stepping up their game, but I’m never worried about March in the big games. He proved that a lot of years ago that he can get it done."
