Brad Marchand Credits Bruins Culture For Team’s Early Success

BOSTON — The Bruins were supposed to take a step back this season following the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in the offseason.

Instead, the Bruins have begun their centennial season with an 8-0-1 record, including an overtime thriller against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last year: the Florida Panthers.

Brad Marchand took issue with the narrative that Boston would “fall off” this season given the team’s depth.

The Bruins may not have Bergeron and Krejci but the franchise is off to its best start in 86 years, and Marchand credits the culture of the organization as one of the key factors in the team’s success.

“There’s a culture here that we have,” Marchand explained. “Guys come in and buy in right away. I think you gotta give management a ton of credit. When they bring guys in, to make sure they’re guys that will buy into the culture and organization and what the team wants to do. It’s a huge priority for them.”

In the offseason, the Bruins brought in veteran players Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Shattenkirk to complement the core that was already in place, along with other newcomers Patrick Brown, Morgan Geekie and Ian Mitchell. Marchand doesn’t believe general manager Don Sweeney would take a chance on those players if he didn’t think they would gel with the existing team.

“When they’re looking at guys … to make sure that they won’t cause issues in the room,” Marchand said. “That’s non-negotiable and everyone that’s come in has left everything on the ice every single day and done everything they can to build chemistry within the group.”

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Marchand added: “And it’s not easy when you have that many new bodies to define that chemistry early. But the biggest thing is that everyone competes hard and works (hard) … it just falls into place.”

The Bruins faced their toughest challenge so far this season on Monday night when they hosted the Panthers at TD Garden. For Marchand it was about the two points, not just getting the win over Florida.

“Not because I don’t hold grudges,” Marchand said with a laugh. “Just didn’t change anything. It’s always nice to win a game but it’s two points. It’s not going to change last year. At the end of the day, Florida ended up in the exact spot we did, just a month later.”

Marchand said he is staying focused on what this Bruins team is trying to accomplish, not the successes and failures of last year’s team.

“We’re trying to build something completely new,” he said. “We have a much different group, a lot of new guys and we’re trying to build something completely different than than last year. Obviously, there’s a foundation this team that’s been built long before this year and it’s just something we want to continue to improve upon.”

So far, the Bruins are off to a great start in the post-Bergeron era. The only question that remains is whether this squad can maintain this level of play throughout the season as the schedule gets more condensed and injuries and fatigue start setting in.