Brad Marchand blasts Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren after win over New York

By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com

Brad Marchand must have been surprised to see Ryan Lindgren's nameplate before crosschecking him across the back on Sunday afternoon, because according to Marchand, he didn't even know Lindgren was in New York.

“I didn’t even know [Lindgren] was here,” Marchand, who finished Sunday's win with an assist in 21:32, told reporters. “He’s not gonna be a player who’s gonna have a very long career, so I’m not overly concerned about him.”

While seemingly utterly and complete out of nowhere without context of the situation, Marchand's trash talk came in the immediate aftermath of a Bruins-Rangers tilt that saw the two exchange pleasantries in front of the New York bench in the first period. And then again in the second period when Lindgren tried to return a shove to Patrice Bergeron. (Marchand obviously wasn't going to let anybody -- especially a player with 53 games of NHL experience -- touch Bergeron after the whistle without a response, as he's said and proved as much in the past.)

It was that second incident that really set things off, too, as the Rangers' Pavel Buchnevich came to Lindgren's defense after Marchand's cross check with one of his own to Boston's top left winger, which knocked No. 63 down to the ice with Lindgren and set up an on-ice, mini-scrap of sorts between Marchand and Lindgren.

What makes Marchand's comments interesting (other than the fact that it's classic Marchand just annihilating his competition off the ice) is that Lindgren was actually drafted by Bruins general manager Don Sweeney with the 49th overall pick back in 2016. Lindgren wasn't long for the B's organization, however, and was part of the five-piece package the Bruins sent to the Rangers in exchange for top-six winger Rick Nash prior to the 2018 trade deadline. And given his status as an NCAA prospect, Lindgren never had any sort of real experience with Marchand, as he did not participate in the preseason and Marchand was obviously well beyond his development camp years by the time Lindgren came through Boston for his cups of coffee.

Marchand also noted that this wasn't carryover from any of their previous meetings this season -- this was actually Lindgren's second 2019-20 meeting against the B's, and just his third head-to-head with the team that traded him to the Blueshirts in 2018 -- but remained honest about where he sees Lindgren's career going.

And it was far from promising, according to Marchand.

"All the best to him, hope he does a great job, but I can’t see it," said Marchand.

Then again, neither could Sweeney, I guess.