Barring an unpredicted event of nature, Marchand will play his 1,000th regular-season game Tuesday when the Bruins host the Lightning.
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Barring, say, an unpredicted event of nature,
Brad Marchand will play his 1,000th regular-season game Tuesday night when the Bruins face the Lightning at TD Garden.
An unpredicted force of nature since soon after he made landfall on Causeway Street during the 2009-10 season, Marchand, 35, will become only the eighth player to suit up 1,000 times for the Black and Gold. That’s an impressive feat for a guy initially sized up by most of the Hub of Hockey’s vulcanized cognoscenti as a fourth-line stocking filler (guilty hand raised here). Remember, for all his boundless energy, he contributed all of one assist in 20 games that first season in what was a remarkably unremarkable debut.
Brad Marchand? That guy, 1,000 games? Sure, and
Evgeni Ryabchikov for the Black and Gold’s All-Century team. These were the days talk show host and one-time Bruins beat reporter
Michael Felger called Marchand “Marchmant” on air and no one much cared. These were days when coach
Claude Julien, though appreciative of the little guy’s gargantuan effort, mostly buttoned him into bottom-six and penalty-killing roles. Power play? Marchand? What the hell do ya mean, power play?!
As first impressions went, Marchand was the 5-foot-9-inch misfit toy who appeared destined to be a guy packaged into a trade as a sweetener in order to get a front-line player, a difference-maker, maybe a bigger, stronger, elite, legit NHL forward. Size matters and all that, right?
“I mean, his career is amazing, really, because he’s not the guy that went first overall, that you thought was destined for greatness,” said an admiring
Charlie McAvoy, Bruins defenseman and alternate captain. “I think that’s part of the reason why his story is just so incredible. Because he worked for everything that he got and what he is now is a product of that work — and you know, sort of finding what he could do and then never being satisfied with that.”
In 2011 at The White House,
“Brad Marchand went into the season playing on the fourth line,” duly noted the then-Commander in Chief, struggling initially to locate the then 23-year-old winger standing to his right (off wing), “but the Little Ball of Hate shook off the rookie jitters and … uh … what’s up with that nickname, man?”
The audience, with then-Boston mayor,
Tom Menino, sitting in the front row, chuckled over both the nickname and the president’s impeccable comedic delivery.
“And,” added Obama, “he scored five goals in the last five games of the Final series.”
Marchand, in fact, was the Bruins’ fourth pick, No. 71 overall, in the 2006 draft, following
Phil Kessel (5),
Yuri Alexandrov (37), and
Milan Lucic (50). He grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and played two more seasons years in the Quebec League before turning pro with AHL Providence in the spring of ‘08. Though he was never his junior team’s top scorer, he produced more than a point per game his final two seasons in the Q.
“What makes him tick is, he doesn’t accept being [typecast]. He wants to be great,” said Bruins coach
Jim Montgomery. “That inner belief that he can work himself into being more than what other people may perceive. You know, his whole life he’s had a chip on his shoulder and I think that chip on his shoulder has allowed him to become one of the greatest Bruins of all time and one of the best leaders of our team.”
Montgomery, at 5-10, has lived the chip life.
“All of us short guys” are accustomed to it, he said, with a knowing chuckle.
“The chip that , ‘You don’t think I’m as good offensively as I am.’ That, ‘You don’t think I’m as tough as I am,’ ” added the coach, describing the mentality and accompanying motivation. “He personifies it to the best degree possible. People ask me all the time, and I’m like, ‘When you have guys like Marchand that start every drill, start the drill the right way, everyone else follows suit.’ They understand the standard and that standard he sets as our leader is invaluable.”
“Yeah, everyone knows of Marchy,” said Coyle, these days Marchand’s pivot on the club’s No. 1 line. “You hear all the talk … highlight-reel goals and this and that … the antics. But getting to know a guy like that, and getting to play with him, and seeing how hard he works, where he’s kind of come from and how he’s worked for everything, and now he is such an established player — one of the best players in the league. It’s great to see that.”
Marchand, noted Coyle, comes with an added bonus.
“When you see people get success, and you meet ‘em,” Coyle said, “and they’re such great people and they have work ethic, they compete … and they’re great teammates, just love rooting for those people, makes you root for ‘em even more.”
“For someone like me, you want to chase that,” said McAvoy when asked how Marchand has influenced his game. “You want to be remembered in the same way. And you don’t have to look any further, [if asking], ‘OK, how?’ Well, he works harder than everybody else, so I have to work as hard as him. And someone who can lead by example like that is just special, it’s a very special trait, extremely special. He makes me want to be better. He makes us all want to be better.”