Ryan: Monday's OT triumph was the quintessential Brad Marchand experience

Following along with each and every Brad Marchand shift during a game is a bit like hopping on a roller coaster for the first time. 

There’s quite a few highs. And a couple of lows. Twists and turns abound. Your heart might skip a beat or two through the course of it. 

But through all the ups and downs, one thing holds true when the coaster’s track nears its end: You can’t wait to experience it all again.

Monday night at Capital One Arena was a quintessential Marchand experience, to say the least. 

The track that led to a dramatic 4-3 victory for Boston over the Capitals was far from a linear path — with a 1-1 series deadlock only made possible thanks to a late-game equalizer from Taylor Hall and another overtime session. 

And while the first 60 minutes of play featured a couple of lows from Boston’s top left winger, headlined by a pair of minor penalties and a lack of tangible production on the scoreboard, the end result on the night was a sight that Boston will take every single time this postseason. 

That of a joyous Marchand leaping into the arms of Hall and a raucous Bruins bench — seconds after No. 63 buried the OT winner in Monday’s Game 2 triumph.

“He doesn’t weigh that much — and I’ve been lifting a lot lately,” Hall joked postgame of catching Marchand following the OT strike. 

Marchand’s game-winning one-timer just 39 seconds into overtime — surpassing Bobby Orr’s Cup-clinching tally against the Blues back in 1970 (0:40) for the fastest postseason OT goal in B’s franchise history — was an emphatic stamp on an eventful night for the 33-year-old winger. 

But even the more confounding aspects of Marchand’s play on Monday night — namely the roughing and slashing calls whistled against him in the first and second period, respectively — weren’t going to draw much ire from his bench boss following Monday’s victory.

"I don't worry about Marsh,” Bruce Cassidy said. “He's going to periodically push back. He's in the middle of everything. So he's got to defend himself . ... He's doing a lot better now in how he's taking penalties. So I've got a lot of faith and trust and loyalty to Brad. There's way, way more good than bad. And I think he wanted to drag us into the fight. And we needed it tonight. Because we didn't start on time. … So that's Brad.

“I think he's matured enough now to not take himself out of the game. Maybe that would have been a game in the past, he would have let it get to him and he wouldn't have been an effective player but he found his game and certainly is a big part of the win, obviously, with the overtime winner.”

For as much as Marchand is regularly in his element when it comes to getting under the skin of the opposition with post-whistle shoves and chirps, rarely do we see any retaliatory strikes or mounting frustrations boil over into a showing where Marchand is rendered completely useless. 

Sure, there are pockets of … crispiness … where the winger could go without poking the bear or getting the last jab in. But sooner or later, the veteran manages to right the ship — sometimes thanks to some help from others on Boston’s bench. 

"That second (penalty) was a little soft. I don't think either of us ... they probably just could have let that one go on both sides,” Marchand said of his matching penalty with Anthony Mantha, adding “After that one, I think the refs were kind of sending a little bit of a message and it was received and obviously Bergy in situations like that will grab me and kind of reel me back in like he did and that's just part of it.”

Having a veteran presence like Patrice Bergeron as a steadying force clearly pays dividends, but Marchand brings his own value to the rest of his teammates beyond just the obvious scoring clip he’s produced at for years now as an offensive conduit. 

For as much as some Marchand O-zone possessions can result in giveaways or ambitious puck-play that leads to little in terms of Grade-A looks, the optics of a 5-foot-9 winger like Marchand racing in against big bodies like Zdeno Chara and Brenden Dillon and scrapping for loose pucks offers a template that the rest of the roster is quick to follow.

"Sometimes you have to see a guy do it for you to know that it can be done,” Hall said of watching Marchand’s game. “It's not all about goal scoring or scoring points. When he goes in on a forecheck one on two and comes out with the puck or it seems like the D-man has him and he spins off quickly and settles the play down for us and we're able to have an o-zone shift — those are huge plays and there's no stat for that really.

"But we see it on the bench and we're able to kind of galvanize and come together when you're able to see an offensive guy do that and as the night wore on, we held on to pucks in a lot of places that last game we just we didn't."

Following such an example paid dividends in the third, when Hall capped off a frantic scrum around Craig Anderson by knocking a loose puck into twine from the blue paint to help keep Boston in the fight and force overtime. 

And ultimately, Marchand rewarded Cassidy and his teammates' faith in him by delivering when they needed him most — with the winger rifling home a feed from Matt Grzelcyk shortly into the extra period to give Boston new life against the Capitals.

Marchand's night was far from the smoothest that we've seen from a star player in this league. At times, it was stress-inducing, if not terrifying. But, like most thrill rides, one thing holds true. We'll keep on coming back for more.

And the Bruins are certainly in the same boat. 

"Would it be like an hour ago that we tied the game? There's been a lot that's changed in an hour and it's positive for our team," Hall said. "Obviously we kept fighting until the end. I know it's cliche. And I know it's not gonna steal any headlines, but we just kept playing. And sometimes you can't worry about the score, you just keep playing, keep rolling them over shift after shift and hope that something kind of comes your way when you play the right way."