There are roughly 1,000 accurate words to describe Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand.
We won't bore you with the details, especially because around half of those words aren't safe for public consumption, but Marchand's reputation around the NHL has led to a lot of very strong opinions. I mean, even his teammates shared negative thoughts on the 34-year-old prior to joining the B's.
"Oh yeah. Yeah," Garnet Hathaway said when asked if he hated his new teammate prior to joining the Bruins, per Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic. "You hate him. But you love to hate him too. You take a lot of those mental preparations before games. You know who's on the other side and you know what they're going to bring. It's like playoff hockey. You know what the other team's thinking. You know how hard they're going to work. That was every single game against Marshy. You had to be at your best to prepare like that to execute against a guy that's working so hard and is so skilled."
A certain level of disdain from his opponent is something that has defined him throughout his career, but Marchand has recently been required to ascend into a more focused leadership role with captain Patrice Bergeron missing throughout Boston's first-round series against the Florida Panthers. In Game 3, David Krejci was added to the list of veteran absences, which helped reveal a whole new side to Boston's favorite pest.
"He's taken it upon himself, without Patrice being here, to be our mature leader. The guy that is leading us," Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said, per Shinzawa. "He's doing a great job. I think he's dragging people into the fight between whistles. That's what we've asked. We've asked to be really hard between the whistles. We don't want stuff after the whistles. He's led that way. Which is showing great leadership in my opinion."
The Bruins could be forced to rely upon Marchand for a few more games, as Krejci is questionable for Game 4 while Bergeron is still in Boston waiting for the Black and Gold's Game 5 return.
That doesn't seem to be an issue, however.
"Everybody knows you don't fill Patrice's shoes with one person," Montgomery said. "But I think he's taken the lead. "I've heard his voice more in the locker room in between periods and the daily times when I'm walking in there to talk about what we're going to do in practice. Usually Patrice is talking. I hear Brad talking now. He's taken it upon himself, and he's a great leader."
