Bruins dealt concerning Brad Marchand news in Game 3 loss to Panthers
Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the Bruins after two straight-up dreadful periods of play to begin their Game 3 head-to-head with the Panthers, the team kicked off their third frame with word that Bruins captain Brad Marchand was unlikely to return to the game.
The Bruins termed the injury an “upper-body injury,” and Marchand did indeed remain in the Boston dressing room for the remainder of what finished as a 6-2 loss for the Bruins.
And the Bruins had little to offer in terms of an update on their captain and leading scorer (10 points) through their first 10 games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Upper body,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said. “We’ll know more [Saturday].”
It’s unclear exactly what is ailing the 36-year-old, but Marchand did appear to be in significant discomfort following a center-ice collision with the Panthers’ Sam Bennett in the first period of play.
As noted, though in considerable discomfort, Marchand would finish both the first and second period before the team took him out of action for the third period.
With Marchand out, the Bruins rallied for a pair of goals and at one point made it a two-goal game, but ultimately failed to get any closer than that in what finished as a four-goal loss for the club thanks to a late-game empty-net strike and a garbage-time power-play goal by the Panthers.
“You know, I thought we rallied because of our captain,” Montgomery said of his team’s third-period push. “I thought that [David Pastrnak] and Charlie McAvoy did a great job with him not being on the bench. And I thought our players all elevated and we started competing like Brad Marchand would.”
Knowing Marchand, there’s no denying that the Black and Gold’s emotional leader will do everything he can to get back on the ice for Sunday’s Game 4. But in the event that he is medically unable, it’ll be on the Bruins’ other talents such as Jake DeBrusk (a goal and a drawn penalty in the third period) to get things firing up for a B’s squad inching ever closer to desperation mode.
“Obviously we’ve always had ‘next man up’ mentality and injuries happen throughout the playoffs, and he’s probably the toughest guy I know, so I don’t doubt he’ll do anything he can to get back in as fast as possible,” DeBrusk said of Marchand. “But in saying that, I think guys like myself need to be better, obviously. I think I just need to get better in general. But I think as offensive players, especially in special teams [and] playing both sides of the puck, [we] need to fill that gap.”
