The Stanley Cup Playoffs are over a month away, but Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand and the Toronto Maple Leafs already are going back-and-forth like it’s mid-April.
Marchand made headlines Tuesday when he took to Twitter to praise breakout star Mitch Marner. While some viewed the tweet as rather innocuous, others saw Marchand trying to inflate the value of Marner, who soon might be too expensive for the salary-cap-strapped Leafs.
In other words: Marchand was trolling.
Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas certainly saw it that way. Check out this tweet from TSN reporter Frank Seravalli:
#Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on Marchand: “That was a master troll job, you have to respect that. With over 90 per cent probability to play Boston in the first round, that he was waking up in the morning thinking about the Toronto Maple Leafs, we’ll take that.”
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 6, 2019
Heeere we go.
Marchand, as you might expect, is pleading innocence. He addressed the tweet Tuesday night after the Bruins’ overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
#NHLBruins F Brad Marchand on his tweet about #LeafsForever F Mitch Marner:
“Some people really took that the wrong way. I mean give the kid credit, he’s a great player, that’s all I was trying to get at. He’s having a great year.” pic.twitter.com/QnXJq0ZN0c
— Boston Bruins on CLNS (@BruinsCLNS) March 6, 2019
Boston and Toronto currently are in line to square off in the first round of the playoffs. We’ll spare you the playoff mumbo-jumbo, but just know it’s highly likely these two Atlantic Division rivals meet each other in April.
And should that happen, you can bet Marchand once again will be at the center of everything.
