The award covered the week ending on Christmas, during which Marchand piled up six points in just two games. He scored the game-winner in both, with his third-period tally against Montreal last Monday standing up as the difference in Boston's 3-2 victory.
Marchand also opened the scoring Friday against Florida with his first shorthanded goal of the season. That would be all the scoring the Bruins needed, but they got plenty more in an 8-0 rout of the Panthers. Most of that offense came from Marchand, who collected his first NHL hat trick with two more goals in the third period and finished the night with five points with assists on goals by Dennis Seidenberg and Gregory Campbell.
Marchand took over the team lead in goals with his hat trick, which gave him 15 for the season. He's also second in points with 29 and second on both the team and in the entire league in plus/minus at plus-25 after finishing a plus-5 on Friday.
"I think I've just been fortunate enough to play with great players and I just kind of feed off them and get some lucky goals," Marchand said after Friday's win. "I never expected to be in that position [leading the team in goals] and I don't expect to be there long, but it's a lot of fun being on this team and being in the winning ways right now, so hopefully it keeps going."
Marchand's strong play has helped the Bruins continue their roll the past two months. Boston sits atop the Eastern Conference standings at 23-9-1 thanks to a 20-2-1 record since the start of November. The Bruins have won six straight, outscoring opponents 30-7 in that span.
New York Rangers forward Marian Gaborik, who had 4-1-5 totals and two game-winning goals in three games, was the week's Second Star, while Colorado goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was 3-0-0 with a 1.60 goals-against average and a .951 save percentage, was named the week's No. 3 Star.
