Brad Marchand is really, really excited about the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Boston Bruins left wing predicts the postseason will be "crazy" because of the number of teams that have legitimate aspirations of lifting the Stanley Cup in 2022. Marchand believes the Bruins have a good shot at winning it all but he also warns the road to glory might be tougher than it has been in ages.
"Yeah I think with the way that we've been playing the last little while and the guys that we brought in at the deadline, we do have the potential to make a good run," Marchand said Thursday at a press conference, as seen in video the Bruins provided. "But again you look at the teams in the East, every playoff team is a legit contender this year. Every team has their work cut out for them, and it's going to be a crazy playoffs this year.
"I'm really excited for playoffs this year. It's going to be an absolute war all the way through. Whoever wins this year, it's going to mean a lot more than other years because the playoffs are so deep. But it's going to be exciting, and I think that we have that potential to make a good run, but so does every other team.
"You're going to have to win four basically Stanley Cup Finals series to win this year. Every team is that deep, so it's going to be an interesting playoffs."
After an uneven start to the regular season, the Bruins have climbed into fourth place in the Atlantic Division standings and look to overtake the Tampa Bay Lightning for third place when they meet Thursday night at TD Garden.
The Bruins already were determined to sustain their forward momentum over the final five-plus weeks of the regular season, and traded deadline additions like Hampus Lindholm have given the squad another lift as it enters the stretch run.
Although Marchand surely isn't the only Bruin who projects the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be wild, he's the first one who has said it publicly in such stark terms.
That should make Bruins fans perk up at the prospect of the coming postseason fun.
