To think that back in November, and even into December, the Little Ball of Hate, Brad Marchand, was a huge question mark on the Bruin roster. He was moved from the second line, where he’s been a staple for the last few years, down to the fourth line for one game and then the third line for an extended stint until Loui Eriksson was sidelined with concussion problems. There was talk of leaving him on the third line, or even putting him down as a healthy scratch to try and break the funk.
He wasn’t scoring and, even worse than not contributing, he was coughing the puck up early and often. 33 games into the season he had six goals, nine assists, totaling 17 points and was a – 7.
An injury plague that surrounded the Bruins for the early part of the season left head coach Claude Julien in a bind. Unable to healthy sscratch Marchand and with his hands tied as to where to put him in the lineup, Julien had to leave him with the second unit of Patrice Bergeron and emerging star Reilly Smith. It was then, around mid-December that Marchand finally started to turn it around.
Proving his many detractors wrong that he hadn’t lost it, he put up nearly a point per game in his next 25 games with 21 points on 14 goals and nine assists to go along with a plus minues rating of +17. That stretch put his totals up to 38 points on 20 goals, 18 assists and +24 on the season so far. If he keeps to his usual pace from seasons past, he is looking to be right around 50 points, which would be the second highest point-scoring total of his career.
It was the costly injuries to Boston’s roster is that kept Marchand from being scratched while he was struggling, but I believe that letting a guy work his way out of a slump without sitting him down is the right way to go. Just like in basketball when a shooter has a cold hand, they say to just keep shooting. Taking a guy off the roster and sitting him for games can only make him feel worse about the way his season is going.
If one looks around the NHL, and doesn’t just focus on the Bruins, we can see that there are a number of players who go through rough patches in the course of a season. Top line players all around the league will have their slumps, and eventually they will also have their hot streaks where they begin putting the puck in the net. When one talks about “scoring pace” we are best to look at big sample sizes, and average out a larger number of games, rather than get hung up on things like 10 or 15 game stretches. Earlier in the season, the right move was to stick with Marchand, and let him shoot his way out of his slump. His history suggests he is a good player who just hit a rough patch and patience should be taken.
I also think that, at the beginning of the season, Marchand had a lot to deal with. His friend and line-mate Tyler Seguin had been shipped off to Dallas. He also had just been through a tough Game Six loss in the Stanley Cup Final to Chicago where the Blackhawks tied the game and took the lead in a 17-second span with a little over a minute left in the game. Marchand is still a young player and I think the tough loss from the season before and the loss of a line-mate that helped Marchand to his most successful seasons on the ice were difficult things to work through.
I think he has helped prove once again that letting a guy shoot out of his slump is the way to go, especially a young player experiencing some difficult aspects of pro sports for the first time. The good players almost always come around, talent does not disappear, and Marchand has once again found his spot as a key member of the Bruins lineup.
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