Had Brad Marchand only undergone surgery on one of his hips in the offseason, the outlook of his NHL career would have been very different.
The Boston Bruins winger had a double hip arthroscopy and labral repair in May that sidelined him for five months -- a month ahead of schedule. Marchand decided to have the surgery over playing through it in order to play as long as possible, and he had the choice to get one or both hips done.
In a conversation with ESPN's Emily Kaplan, Marchand revealed he asked if he had one hip repaired if that meant it was a guarantee he wouldn't need to have surgery on his other one.
Marchand elected to have both after being told there were no guarantees, and it's a good thing he did.
"One of the first things the doctor told me after (surgery) was, 'You're lucky you did both, because you would've been done in a year or two," Marchand told Kaplan. "Because at that point I would've needed a whole hip replacement and my career would've been over."
Marchand made a surprise return to the Bruins lineup five weeks ahead of the original six-month timeline and immediately contributed to the 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings with a three-point night at TD Garden.
"Personally, I feel like if you're told something, it's just a limitation that you're setting for yourself -- or in this case for my recovery," Marchand told Kaplan. "Six months, that's a long time. And especially when I heard the breakdown for why I needed it. Unfortunately it was because I needed extra time to get back in shape. My instant thought was 'All right, how can we get this done sooner?'"
Once everyone was on the same page, the end of October was circled on the calendar "months ago" for Marchand to return to game action. And it became a reality due to the work Marchand put in over the last five months.
He's become one of the NHL's top scorers and has cleaned up his game of late and has been a crucial part of the Bruins' top line, and that figures to continue this season.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery had an all-time quote after seeing Marchand play for the first time, calling him a little "Tasmanian devil" because he's all over the ice and battles for pucks in a way others don't.
Marchand will play in his second game of the season Tuesday night when the Bruins take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Puck drop from PPG Paints Arena is set for 8 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN.
