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    Marchand breaks through at a crucial time for the desperate Bruins
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    Marchand breaks through at a crucial time for the desperate Bruins

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    6 minutes, 6 seconds Read

    Bruins

    “He is our leader, he is someone who embodies what it means to be a Bruin in the right way.”

    Marchand breaks through at a crucial time for the desperate Bruins

    Brad Marchand finally scored his first goal of the season on Saturday night. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)

    Brad Marchand is no stranger to goal slumps.

    In 2015, the combative winger once went 15 games in a row without a record, while several other losing streaks lasted several weeks.

    Given his NHL tenure (16 seasons) and record (401 career goals as of Saturday night), the Bruins captain isn't the type to get upset about nights when the puck isn't in the net.

    “I've been through a lot of different phases in my career, good and bad, and you have to stay balanced,” Marchand admitted. “I didn’t get too into it.”

    But the 36-year-old winger quickly gave in.

    “But it’s nice to get that out of the way,” he noted.

    After failing to light the lamp in Boston's first eight games of the 2024-25 season, Marchand finally got out of trouble Saturday against the Maple Leafs, scoring the game-winner in overtime in Boston's 4-3 win over Toronto .

    For Marchand, it might have been a welcome sight to see the fluttering puck sail past Anthony Stolarz. But it meant a lot more to a struggling Bruins team that desperately needed a good performance on home ice.

    “It was nice for the group to be rewarded for playing the right way,” Marchand said of Boston’s win — the team’s first since Oct. 16. “Sometimes you do it once or twice and it doesn't work out the way you want it to, and you start to switch and get back into bad habits.

    “And we didn’t do that tonight. Even when they scored late, we just kept playing the right way and it paid off.”

    Despite Saturday's dramatic finish, Boston delivered arguably its best performance in weeks in much of its final bout against its Original Six opponent.

    The bottom-six Bruins again scored a pair of 5-on-5 goals from Justin Brazeau and Mark Kastelic, while Boston's PK rebounded with a 3-on-3.

    Boston controlled most of Saturday's game and had a 34-23 advantage in shots on goal. The Bruins finished the game with ten dangerous scoring opportunities at 5-on-5, with most of the third period featuring a tenacious Boston squad pulling off a professional closeout victory.

    However, this mood quickly evaporated when communication between Charlie McAvoy and Johnny Beecher brutally broke down and Auston Matthews equalized with just 1:17 left in the game.

    To twist the knife even further, Boston may have missed out on a strong team-wide performance (and two points in the standings) after Marchand failed to score without a goal just before Matthews' tally.

    But Marchand and the Bruins rallied in the extra frame. After a costly turnover by Matthews allowed David Pastrnak to hit the puck near the blue line, Marchand pushed his teammate's shot into the net – and ultimately pushed the cookie past Stolarz to give Boston a much-needed win.

    “I was hoping (he) would do it on the empty net. I have to be honest,” Jim Montgomery said of Marchand’s OT goal. “But you could see how happy the bench was when he scored that goal. He's our leader, he's someone who embodies what it means to be a Bruin – in the way he carries himself, on the ice, off the ice, everything. And he’s our captain.”

    Marchand could have dismissed concerns about his scoring ability from the start. But when assessing the bigger picture of a Bruins team in desperate need of positive results, that sentiment wasn't reflected.

    Be it the team's poor offensive performance, the penalty issues and the added pressure on Montgomery's shoulders given the poor results, Saturday's win came at a critical time.

    And given his decades-long reputation as Boston's dose of adrenaline on the ice, it should come as no surprise that Marchand was the one who gave the Bruins the boost they needed.

    “It's one game, you know, it's not going to change things completely, but it's a great opportunity for us to realize that if we play the right way, we're a good team,” Marchand admitted. “That’s a great group over there, very offensive. And it’s a great way to start building our foundation and understanding how we can achieve that success and build on something.”

    Profile picture for Conor Ryan

    Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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