For the Boston Bruins, the key was clear after first three games of the second-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. They needed more from their top guns to win some hockey games. One of the players not playing well enough was Brad Marchand.
Once again, there has been plenty of discussion of Marchand and an incident involving a cheap shot. Nevertheless, in his first eight games of the playoffs, Marchand had exactly zero penalty minutes. He had nine points in those eight contests.
As soon as he started to lose his cool, the storm started to brew. And the Blue Jackets sensed that. They decided to use it to their advantage. The first penalty taken by Marchand in the playoffs resulted in the Blue Jackets’ first goal of Game 2.
In Game 3, Marchand made a careless crosscheck-to-face play in the second period, resulting in another Blue Jackets’ power play. Matt Duchene made it 2-0 and it was an eventual game-winner. Just like that, and the Bruins were down in the series. In the winding moments of Game 3 at Nationwide Arena, Marchand did this to Scott Harrington. Clearly a dirty play, the Blue Jackets appealed for his suspension.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsBrad Marchand punching the back of Scott Harrington’s head while Harrington is down on his knees. pic.twitter.com/3JYYH8o89O
— Flintor (@TheFlintor) 1. mája 2019
In Game 4, Marchand was off again. He looked unfocused and was battling with himself all night long. On the Bruins opening power play, he tripped Boone Jenner, who was awarded a penalty shot, which was stopped by Tuukka Rask. Marchand committed another two penalties throughout the rest of the game, but the Bruins killed them. However, it looked like Columbus got into Marchand’s head.
In Game 5, Marchand seemingly returned to form. He looked solid handling the puck and didn’t commit any costly penalties. In the third period, he finally got one through Sergei Bobrovsky for his first goal of the series. He added another two assists, both resulting in David Pastrnak’s huge goals to win Game 5.
After being held to just one point in his past five games, Brad Marchand was at top of his game again. And it helped the Bruins so much. His play is tied up a lot to his head and to how is he able to keep his cool and concentration. That’s the Brad Marchand the Bruins love, want and need.
