Despite Jim Montgomery tempering expectations on Wednesday when it came to Brad Marchand’s availability within the next week, the B’s bench boss made a surprise announcement the following day — announcing that Marchand will indeed play on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings.
“I was a little coy yesterday, because we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves — we wanted to see how he responded to a good hard practice yesterday. ... Things were looking good,” Montgomery said of Marchand. “But I know myself, as a coach, I'm excited to coach him and see the energy and the work ethic that he's gonna bring to the Bruins tonight.”
Marchand, on the mend after undergoing hip arthroscopy and labral repair procedures on both hips on May 27, was initially given a recovery time of six months — which would tab him for a return near the end of November.
During his previous media availabilities, Marchand routinely stuck to that Thanksgiving timeline when it came to his return to the ice, even though he first started taking part in practices close to two weeks ago in a non-contract sweater.
Clearly, that expected return date wasn’t going to be part of Marchand’s plan — health permitting, of course.
“We had this date circled on the calendar months ago,” Marchand said Thuesday. “We obviously wanted to keep it kinda close, and there were a lot of different variables about things that could’ve happened or how I was going to feel so we weren’t sure. But we kinda checked the box all along with each step with took and progression.
“I felt good and responded very well. I gotta give a ton of credit to the training staff. We wanted to get back as soon as we could within reason.”
As expected, Marchand will slot back onto Boston’s top line next to Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk — while Pavel Zacha will bump down to Charlie Coyle’s line. Montgomery noted that Marchand will not play in back-to-back games in the early going while shaking off the rust, so he won’t play on Friday in Columbus.
The Bruins will likely need to make a few corresponding paper transactions in order to accommodate Marchand’s addition to the game roster, although Montgomery didn’t have a concrete answer about what moves will be made. Mike Reilly, who will not play tonight, could be sent down to Providence (without waivers now) in order to clear some cap space.
Obviously, it can’t be understated what Marchand’s return means for a Bruins team already off to a 6-1-0 start — be it his 5v5 scoring capabilities, impact on both the power play and penalty kill and the emotional lift that the dogged winger provides in a game setting.
As for his expectations back out on the ice?
"It's about making sure I'm not a liability out there and not getting in the guys' way — they're rolling and feeling good. So I mean, the main thing is just keeping it simple. Keeping shifts short, not trying to do too much or be too fancy. Just gonna have to chip a lot of pucks in, chip a lot of pucks out and sit there for five or 10 seconds at a time and get off,” Marchand said with a grin.
Here is the projected lineup for tonight’s game against Detroit:
Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk
Hall-Krejci-Pastrnak
Frederic-Coyle-Zacha
Foligno-Nosek-Smith
Lindholm-Grzelcyk
Forbort-Clifton
Zboril-Carlo
Swayman