Marchand was one of the few bright spots in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to Phoenix, as he recorded a pair of hits and his four shots were second only to Blake Wheeler‘s five on the team. And Marchand did it in just 10:19 of ice-time.
He followed that with another shot in 14:31 as the Bruins bounced back with a 3-0 win over the Coyotes on Sunday. The stats don’t jump off the page, but Marchand continues to do the little things to keep him in the lineup as he helped make Boston’s fourth line with Greg Campbell and Shawn Thornton an effective unit throughout the weekend.
“I was really happy with how the two games went,” said Marchand after practice at Ristuccia Arena on Friday. “Obviously as long as the team wins, it doesn’t matter how individual guys played. I just want to play my role, and the role I’m in is on the energy line right now. I just want to take the body, keep the puck in their end and keep it out of our end. As long as we do that, we should be fine.”
Bruins coach Claude Julien sees the potential for an even greater role in Marchand, who flashed some untapped offensive skills in the preseason.
“I think things kind of turned around when he scored that goal in Washington,” said Julien, referring to Marchand’s third-period tally against the Capitals in an exhibition game on Sept. 28. “Just before he scored that goal I said to him, ‘You’ve got to start taking pucks to the net Brad. You do it in practice and you have to start doing it in games.’ I’ve said it before, he’s got a good shot. He’s just got to have that confidence and he did it twice in his next two shifts.
“I really felt that from there on in he understood a lot of things and got more confident,” added Julien. “He’s an important [piece of the] puzzle on that line with Campbell and Thornton that has made that line not just an energy line, but also a line that can hopefully score some goals for us.”
Marchand, 22, admitted that he does feel more comfortable this year after getting a taste of NHL life last season.
“Definitely, I do feel more comfortable,” said Marchand. “I know what to expect this year. I already have a taste of it. I knew what I had to change and how the team wants me to play. I definitely took a lot of positives out of last year even though it wasn’t my best season. I didn’t play my best when I was up last year, but I took a lot out of it and learned a lot.”
Marchand was up with the big club for much of the season and all of the playoffs, but dressed for just 20 games and was a healthy scratch throughout the postseason. He collected an assist in his debut against Nashville on Oct. 21, but didn’t have another point after that.
He does have an impressive offensive resume, however. He had 32 points in just 34 games with Providence last season before being called up to Boston for good. That followed a 59-point campaign in his first pro season in 2008-09 and a junior career that featured 102 goals and 248 points in 245 games in the QMJHL, plus 6-2-8 totals in 13 games in two World Junior Championship appearances for Canada.
Even playing limited minutes on the fourth line, Marchand hopes to rekindle some of that offensive fire in the NHL this year while playing alongside Campbell and Thornton.
“[Campbell] and Thorny are great players,” said Marchand. “They’re fun to play with and I think we all complement each other well. They’re both hard-working guys and we can all read off each other. We all know that we’re going to keep it simple and keep it low and we’re not going to try to get too fancy. We know where to drive and where to support each other. As long as we do that and take pucks to the net we’re going to keep getting chances and eventually they’re going to go in.”
While he’s yet to supply much offensive production of his own, Marchand is already developing a knack for getting the opposition’s top scorers off their game. Marchand is capable of providing the kind of agitating presence the Bruins have lacked in recent seasons, but he has to take care not to go overboard with his antics.
“You want to feel your way through, and Brad is one of those guys that likes to get under people’s skin,” said Julien. “When he got called up, he wanted to do that, but he doesn’t want to cross the line because it doesn’t take long [to get a reputation]. It’s OK to have the other team against you, but the one thing you don’t want to do is have the referees turn on you as well. We’ve seen that with players in the past. He’s trying to feel his way through that so that he can have the impact that he wants, but at the same time there’s a confidence there as well with his play that he thinks he can create some scoring chances.”
