Be it Canucks killer or Bruins savior - some things never change with Brad Marchand

The year is 2021. 

These days, Alex Burrows is serving as an assistant coach on Dominique Ducharme’s staff up in Montreal.

Henrik and Daniel Sedin are still with the Canucks, but the twins now serve as special advisors in the franchise’s front office, rather than a playmaking conduit out on the ice. 

Kevin Bieksa is now sharing his insight on-air as a regular analyst on Hockey Night in Canada.

More than a decade removed from that bitter seven-game battle between the Bruins and Canucks, most of the culprits that lit the match and sparked that heated disdain between both clubs have hung up their skates.

And yet, even though this current Canucks club bears little resemblance to that Stanley Cup roster (especially in terms of on-ice success), it sure seems like Brad Marchand’s affinity for decimating Vancouver hasn’t waned since his fiery warpath back in 2011. 

Even before his O-zone mastery orchestrated two power-play goals in the final 11:15 of play on Sunday night, Marchand embraced the role of heat-seeking missile whenever he hopped over the boards — dropping both Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tucker Poolman with a pair of thunderous checks in the second period.

Given Marchand’s history with the Canucks, a physical retort from the 5-foot-9 winger was to be expected.

But perhaps it was more the circumstances surrounding his club at the time that promoted such a passionate response from Marchand — rather than the color of the sweater draped over Boston’s foe.

While Marchand preached patience after Boston came up short against a potential Cup contender in the Rangers on Friday afternoon, there would be no silver linings drawn out of Sunday’s showing had a B’s team still looking for traction dropped a home contest to a cellar-dwelling Canucks crew.

But through the final minutes of the second period, such an unsavory result seemed to be coming to fruition, with Boston unable to generate much of anything against Vancouver while staring at a 2-1 deficit. 

With the B’s in desperate need of a spark, Marchand — as he’s done for years now — took it upon himself to try to wake up his teammates on the bench. 

And even though his heavy checks delivered against Ekman-Larsson and Poolman didn’t factor into Sunday’s eventual 3-2 win nearly as much as his power-play production later in the contest, Bruce Cassidy believed it was no surprise that the rest of the lineup started pulling on the rope a bit more after Marchand doled out his punishment against the opposition.

"Real good job on his part with the physicality in the second period. ...  The second period started to get away from us a little bit in terms of dictating play and Marsh went out and had a couple solid hits,” Cassidy said. “Now all of sudden now (Trent Frederic) is finishing a check and it snowballs a little bit, right? Other guys are doing it. He can help you win in a lot of ways.”

Look no further than Boston’s final power-play bids of the evening — with the B’s third-period rally a direct byproduct of Marchand carving up the Canucks penalty killers like a Sunday roast. 

Even though Marchand’s equalizer at 8:45 was generated off of a broken play — with the winger snapping a puck past a scrum of skaters down low — the entire O-zone possession was marked with Marchand extending play and putting pressure on Vancouver with an array of quick cuts and deceptive dekes.

Less than eight minutes later, another power move from Marchand helped give Boston its first lead of the night — with the star forward separating himself from Canucks D-man Kyle Burroughs before driving to Jaroslav Halak’s doorstep. His last-second feed hit David Pastrnak and into the back of the net to put Boston ahead for good.

Crisis averted. 

“He's a top player in the league, definitely,” Linus Ullmark said. “He has been the last couple of years. I mean, he's great in every aspect of it. He can play Power Play, PK. 5v5, it doesn't matter. 6v5. You put him in any situation and he will deliver."

Two points are still two points — but narrowly escaping a disheartening loss to a dreadful Canucks team doesn’t elicit much in terms of good tidings for this Bruins club. 

There’s still plenty of work that needs to be done to get this team rolling — and all facets of the lineup pulling in the same direction. 

There are very few Bruins (let alone players in the league) that boast Marchand’s O-zone creativity, edge work and strength on the puck. And yet, while the rest of his teammates may not be able to mimic his playmaking talents, they can certainly adhere to the finer details of his game — be it a strong backcheck or a momentum-shifting hit.

And if the rest of the Bruins can replicate even half of what Marchand brings this club on a nightly basis — this club will be in good hands. 

“We appreciate each other and the little things that that guys do,” Marchand said. “The hard things, whether it's finishing checks or taking a hit to make a play or blocking a shot. Good back checks, stuff like that — those are little things that always don't get a ton of attention, but they're huge pieces to a winning game. Ones that you need going into the playoffs and if you want to go deep. And it doesn't start in the playoffs. It starts now and it's something you need to build.

“Every guy has to build that into their game and you have to be able to sustain it every night and that's what you work towards. You work towards the little details that allow you to win.  Sometimes it's boring hockey, but it's effective. Again, the good teams in the league — other than teams like Edmonton that have the best players in the league on it — that's the way they have to play to go deep.”