With the Stanley Cup within the Bruins’ grasp, plenty of legacies hang in the balance on historic night at TD Garden

Brad Marchand has been on both sides of the same coin.

A pesky, 22-year-old sparkplug when the Bruins quenched a 39-year championship drought in 2011, Marchand etched his name into the annals of Boston sports lore over that two-month stretch, tallying 19 points during that Cup campaign — including five goals during a seven-game triumph against the Canucks.

Two years later, the joy and revelry that followed Boston’s Cup victory seemed like a distant memory, as Marchand skated off the TD Garden ice as the Chicago Blackhawks celebrated their second championship in four years. The B’s winger closed out the six-game series against the Original Six foe with zero points.

For as much as the spring of 2011 remains as a high point in Marchand’s storied NHL career, the pain of that defeat on hockey’s biggest stage in 2013 remains as a much more vivid — and painful — memory for the forward.



“You realize when you get to this point - how hard it actually is,” Marchand said Tuesday morning. “Especially the longer you’ve been around the league. You look at some guys that have been around for a long time and how few opportunities you get…. It’s extremely tough to just get to this point here and to win is even harder than that.

"Once you lose, you realize how close it is. You get a taste. … It’s extremely difficult. And unfortunately, that’s the way it goes. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. It’s the best thing in the world for the team that wins and it sucks for the team that loses. Being on both sides of it — you realize how hard it is and just how shitty it is to lose. It sticks with you forever - winning and losing. You don’t forget everything that happens when you win and definitely don’t forget what happens when you lose.”

After a preseason trek to China, a mid-season detour to South Bend, 82 regular-season contests and 23 playoff bouts, that roller coaster of emotions is set to finally come to a halt Wednesday night, with either Zdeno Chara or Alex Pietrangelo hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup in front of a crowd set to either pop the roof off of the Garden or funnel their way back through North Station, defeated and despondent.

“I don’t know if I’d call em butterflies, but it’s definitely waking up and realizing that your dream is at your fingertips,” Torey Krug said. “You want to get out there and grab a hold of this thing … It’s right there.”

Sure, the Blues have plenty hanging in the balance when they take to the ice later tonight, with St. Louis on the brink of snapping a 51-year stretch without a championship — the longest dry spell of any NHL club.

But for the Bruins, the ramifications from Wednesday’s result will be felt for decades to come, from a team-wide perspective for sure, but definitely on an individual basis.

With another title, Boston’s veteran core of Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, Tuukka Rask and Marchand enter the hallowed space that B’s legends such as Orr, Bucyk, Esposito, Cheevers, Sanderson and Hodge have taken residence in for years — winners of two Stanley Cups while donning a Black and Gold sweater.

For Rask, Wednesday will likely bring him the Conn Smythe Trophy, erasing all previous talk of his shortcomings and unfair comparisons to Tim Thomas’ heroics in 2011.

For Krug, talk of his inability to hold his own in the defensive zone will subside, with the veteran locking down St. Louis' top-six corps and now just two points shy of tying Orr for the most points accrued by a B’s blueliner in a Stanley Cup Final.

You can down the list when it comes to the implications that Wednesday’s game will have on Boston’s skaters, netminders and the men on the bench.

But on Wednesday morning, just hours ahead of what will be the most important game for every individual in both locker rooms, Bruce Cassidy wasn’t dwelling on legacy.

He’s got a game to win.

“I think that’s judged down the road,” Cassidy said. “I talked to the players about that a lot. This year, when we started the playoffs, to certain players over the years about how they’re labeled. I talked to you guys about Torey, the offensive defenseman and how he always wanted to be talked about as a complete player and I think he’s done that in these playoffs, showing he can defend against good players but still can keep up the offensive numbers.

“Brad Marchand and how he entered the league as a bit of a kind of pest and how he’s grown into an elite player. We use that word around here, but I think it’s for much later. So I haven’t thought about mine personally.

“I just want my name on the damn Cup. That’s what I want.”