When it comes down to it, Monday night’s 4-3 road shootout loss for the Boston Bruins against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena will amount to just a single point in their season-long total.
But it also revealed another moment when B’s captain Brad Marchand’s stubbornness and unwillingness to give up on a hockey game allowed his entire team to salvage something positive out of a tough situation. The 35-year-old scored a pair of goals, including a game-tying score in the third period while crashing the net to redirect a Charlie Coyle centering pass, and played with high energy in the mile-high altitude of Colorado while finishing over the 20 minutes of ice time mark.
Congratulations to Brad Marchand on moving into fifth place on the @NHLBruins all-time points list! 🐻 pic.twitter.com/EDI04wB6QY
— NHL (@NHL) January 9, 2024
“The whole line did a great job just controlling the puck in the O-zone and having good possession time,” said Marchand. “I just tried to drive the net, open up a lane or something, and ‘CC’ did a great job kind of seeing me going there, and made a great play to throw it off my body.”
That’s why in some ways Monday’s result felt less like a run-of-the-mill road loss and more like a show of Black and Gold character with all kinds of factors working against them. It was exactly the kind of challenging situation and adverse scenario that the B’s are going to face come playoff time and becomes preparation for the postseason battles to come in hostile environments three months down the road.
“I thought we won more battles after the first period,” said Jim Montgomery. “I thought Colorado was on top of us in the first, and I thought we got to our puck possession game in the offensive zone.
“‘Marshy’ was terrific tonight. I thought he led really well. Like he was very vocal on the bench about how we needed to get to our game and explaining to his teammates what we had to do [to get through it].”
It wasn’t just the coaches that thought that way, either. It was also Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman after serving as one of the other stars in the shootout loss where he made 33 saves, including 12 stops in the third period against quality Avs chances with the game absolutely feeling like it was on the line.
"I think it's really special and it just shows our leadership. Marchy putting us on his back and not taking no for an answer,” said Swayman, of watching No. 63 making a handful of big plays on a night when Boston needed all of them.
Within that show of leadership and offense, it was also a milestone kind of night for the Bruins winger. Marchand’s second, game-tying score also gives him 899 career NHL points (389 goals, 510 assists) that is good for fifth all-time on the Bruins all-time franchise list just ahead of nifty, speedy center Rick Middleton.
Brad Marchand only needs two points to pass Rick Middleton. 👀
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) January 9, 2024
Will he do it tonight?@NHLBruins | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/YGSPMzW5Gf
It was very appropriate that all of Marchand’s best qualities came together in one gutsy effort as the Bruins battled through losing Brandon Carlo in the second period (that forced Charlie McAvoy into over 30 minutes of ice time in the first night of a back-to-back), the mile high altitude of Colorado that always poses difficulty and a night where Nathan MacKinnon also seemed to have his best skating legs flying up and down the ice.
“We competed hard,” said Marchand. “Unfortunately, we couldn't get that second point. Had a couple opportunities. Kind of squandered the power play in overtime. So, we need to be a little bit better there, in those opportunities, closing out games. But yeah, we did a good job getting the point.”
Marchand played the role of tone setter for the Boston Bruins early in the game as well as he scored a power play goal midway through the first period on a play where he circled in the offensive zone and buried a shot from the top of the circle. The two goals gave Marchand his 61st career multi-goal game that temporarily put him past David Pastrnak for fifth all-time on the Bruins franchise list in that category as well.
Clearly the actions backing up the leadership in professional sports, and you can’t truly be the respected captain of an NHL team unless you can still back it up like Marchand has this season with 17 goals and 37 points along with a plus-2 rating in 39 games. The production puts him on a pace for 36 goals and 78 points in a strong campaign for Marchand a couple of years removed from his double hip surgery.
“Jim Montgomery and the coaching staff have done a nice job of going through some pockets, not get too high when you’re up there, and then don't get too low when we hit some lows,” said Don Sweeney in a state of the Boston Bruins address just before the holidays. “And Brad [Marchand] for that matter, wearing the captaincy for the first time, can’t go unnoticed in terms of responsibility and leadership that he's going through for the first time, learned from some pretty good guys prior to, but he's his own person and he wants to lead from his own personality. And obviously David (Pastrnak) and Charlie (McAvoy) as being the assistants are a big part of that."
Certainly, Pastrnak and McAvoy have been a big part of the new look leadership group for a Boston Bruins team that’s leading the Eastern Conference with 55 points because of nights like Monday when they refuse to relent without a battle, but this team is taking on the personality of their feisty captain Marchand.
And that’s a very good thing based on examples like Monday night whey salvaged a point amid difficult circumstances in Colorado.