BOSTON — Bruins forward Brad Marchand wants another chance. He wants 10 more chances, and he’s confident he’d hit them all this time.
Marchand was nearly the goat Thursday night in the Bruins’ Game 4 overtime win in Detroit. The agitating winger missed two wide-open chances in the first and third periods, and had he scored just one of them, the B’s could have avoided overtime.
Marchand has taken everything in stride, though, and there’s probably no one more ready than him to get back out on the ice, as the Bruins will do Saturday afternoon against the Red Wings, with a chance to close out the first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
“I think (laughing about it is)Â really all you can do,” Marchand said before puck drop at TD Garden. “Looking at it after the game, I think if I had 10 more chances, I don’t think I could miss one if I tried.
“You’ve gotta laugh it off. Those things happen in hockey. If you dwell on it too much, it’s going to affect your game. The big thing is to prepare for today and make sure we play our best game possible.”
Marchand can laugh about those missed opportunities, thanks in large part to Jarome Iginla. The likely Hall of Famer scored the overtime game-winner in Game 4 to send the series back to Boston with the Bruins able to clinch. In addition to giving Iginla a big kiss for getting him off the hook, Marchand says he spoke with Iginla — one of the game’s all-time great scorers — about dealing with ups and downs.
“The last few years, there’s been a lot of good leadership, a lot of guys you can learn from when you miss opportunities,” Â Marchand said. “When you see top guys missing good opportunities and you see how they react, they’re not coming off breaking their sticks. They’re focused on the next opportunities. Even talking to (Iginla) after the game just how many opportunities good goal scorers miss every year that you feel like are sure goals and then you score goals where you pick a small little pocket. Hearing that from one of the best goal scorers ever, it’s relieving. You can learn a lot from guys like that.”
