Brad Marchand Reveals Reasons For Bruins’ Recent Hot Stretch

Things seem to be clicking for the Bruins and Brad Marchand thinks he knows what’s changed from the beginning of the 2021-22 NHL season.

Boston improved to 8-1-1 in its last 10 games with a 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at TD Garden. The script flipped after David Pastrnak scored the game-winning goal in the final 20 seconds of the game.

It took a bit for the Bruins to get going between weird scheduling, COVID-19 and injuries, but 2022 has been kind to the team as it looks to catch the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings.

“I think we’re starting to find chemistry with the group,” Marchand told reporters Friday after practice, per team-provided audio. “It was hard to do that early on because we weren’t playing a lot of games, guys in and out of the lineup. There’s always growing pains that you have to go through, but I think that we’re understanding we’re a good team and understanding the way we need to play to win. And we’re kind of growing every game.

“We had a couple games where we let it go in the last minute, which we’ve got to get back to holding the fort down there in the last minute. But I think there’s been a lot of games where we’ve been in tight situations where early in the year we were folding. We’re not doing that as much anymore. We’re going well.”

The Bruins look to continue their hot stretch Saturday night when they welcome the Arizona Coyotes to TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET on NESN.