Brad Marchand is loving life as he gets ready to play in the Stanley Cup Final with the Florida Panthers. The veteran winger also loved the 16 years he spent with the Bruins, but he did admit to some regrets from his time in Boston ahead of his latest trip to the Cup final.
First up, the 37-year-old regrets not being able to say a proper goodbye to Boston fans after he was dealt away at the NHL Trade Deadline in March. He was injured at the time of the deal, and had no idea a Feb. 27 loss to the New York Islanders would be his final game at TD Garden in a Boston sweater.
“I got hurt before I got traded. The last game I’ll ever play in a Bruins jersey was not the last game I thought I was ever going to play in a Bruins jersey,” Marchand told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.
Marchand wanted to play his entire NHL career with Boston. But with the Bruins floundering at the deadline and Marchand and the Boston brass at a contract impasse, GM Don Sweeney traded away his team’s captain in the biggest deal of his deadline day fire sale.
Marchand regrets not enjoying the moment more in Boston
Marchand is gearing up for the fourth Stanley Cup Final of his career, and he hopes this dance will result in his second ring. He won his first and only cup at the conclusion of his first full NHL season with the Bruins in 2011, when he was a key part of Boston’s seven-game series win over the Vancouver Canucks in the Final.
Marchand was a pesky fourth-line winger at that point, but developed and grew into a dynamic scorer and gritty defender for Boston. He helped the Bruins make two more runs to the Cup Final, plus a historic 135-point regular season in 2022-23.
Winning a Stanley Cup early in his career set the bar high for Marchand, and the Bruins were expected to contend throughout his tenure with the team. Marchand didn’t mind that added pressure, but said it also led to a lot of stress. He believes he was overthinking a lot of things over his final seasons with the franchise.
“There’s this pressure you sometimes put on yourself. You start stressing about things that you don’t need to stress about,” Marchand explained to Wyshynski. “I know that there are moments that I missed out on or didn’t really appreciate because I was stressing about other things.”
Boston’s record-setting season is a perfect example. After the B’s completed the best regular season in NHL history, they were upset by the Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. Marchand doesn’t think he and the team were focused on the task at hand in that series, with their sights instead set on winning a Cup further down the road.
“We thought we were going to go to the finals that year. We thought we were going to win it all, and then we got pushed out in the first round,” recalled Marchand. “You start looking back at those moments and you realize you took all we did that season for granted because we were so worried about going to the finals. We weren’t living in the moment.”
Brad Marchand back in Stanley Cup Final
Marchand has made sure not to make that same mistake during this run to the Cup Final. He was once a nemesis of the Panthers and Florida fans, but has been embraced by the team and the fanbase since his arrival. Through 17 playoff games, Marchand is fourth on the team with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists).
He made it clear the Panthers are still four wins away from accomplishing their goal. But so far, Marchand has made sure to enjoy every moment of the ride.
“I may never get back this late in the playoffs ever again in my career,” he said. “These are memories and moments that you want to embrace.”
It won’t be easy for Bruins fans to see Marchand suit up for the Panthers in a Cup Final, though most wouldn’t mind if he got to lift Lord Stanley’s Chalice once again. The Panthers getting to the Final also benefits Boston, as the second-round pick the team initially received for their captain has turned into a first-round pick thanks to Marchand’s contributions to Florida’s run.
