5 players to watch when Bruins welcome Brad Marchand back to town

Tuesday night at TD Garden will be an emotional one for the Bruins.

No, not just because Boston is welcoming Brad Marchand back to town.

But because the Bruins and the Panthers are coming into this one riding dueling four-game losing streaks. And with each team looking to set the tone against their rival in the first head-to-head of the 2025-26 season.

“I actually like that it’s Florida," Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said of coming back to Boston losing to snap their skid. "For two reasons: It is a Stanley Cup champion, so it’s the best team. It’s a great challenge. That alone should fire the guys up. And [Marchand] coming back, too.”

Here's a look at five players to keep an eye on tonight at TD Garden...

It's been just seven games, but Sturm has proven willing to sit players who are not delivering enough (or the expected, at least) results for their role. And we may be getting closer to that point with Viktor Arvidsson.

Through seven games, the veteran Arvidsson has put up just one assist and 14 shots on goal. On Boston's recent three-game road trip, Arvidsson went without a point, posted a minus-4 rating, and averaged just 12:30 per night. That's not second-line production, or even second-line usage for that matter.

But the Bruins are going to keep Arvidsson locked in as their second-line right wing for tonight's contest, hoping to see him break out of it.

Now, there are things that Arvidsson has done well. He's one of Boston's fastest forwards, and has been able to draw some penalties with that speed. But the Bruins need tangible production (goals and points) out of that grouping, especially with Arvidsson producing at worse rates than scratched players like Johnny Beecher and Marat Khusnutdinov.

Arvidsson, who was on the Oiler squad that lost to Florida in the Stanley Cup Final last season, does have eight goals and 13 points in 20 career showdowns with the Panthers.

Considering their horrendous record, the Bruins actually played shockingly well against the Panthers a season ago, especially in the second half of the season. And one of those players who thrived against Florida, at least from a production standpoint, was defenseman Mason Lohrei.

In four games against the Panthers a season ago, Lohrei posted two goals and five points, and landed seven shots on goal. 

And the Panthers have actually allowed left-shot defenders to get involved offensively this season, too, with six of the nine defenseman-scored points against the Panthers coming from lefty sticks. 

Teams are getting to the high-danger areas against the Panthers' Sergei Bobrovsky a bit easier than they have in the past. Per NHL Edge, Bobrovsky has faced six more high-danger shots (31 total) than the NHL average (25) to start his 2025-26 season. That frequency has hurt Bobrovsky, too, with a .039 save percentage dip from the league average against high-danger shots, according to the NHL's internal metrics. And that's gotta leave someone like the Bruins' Tanner Jeannot salivating ahead of this one.

When Jeannot is at his best, he's getting to the good ice, and making life hell for defensemen and for the goalies behind them. Jeannot's goal in Vegas was a perfect example of the nightmares he can present for an opponent when his offensive game is on point and outworks those in front of him.

You could also make the case that the Bruins went out and signed Jeannot to a big-money deal for games like this. The Bruins want to be more of a thorn in the Panthers' side, and that's a big reason why Jeannot, who is familiar with Florida from his time in Nashville (in the same division as the Panthers during that weird post-COVID season) and Tampa, is here.

Jeannot comes into this contest coming off a season-high four shots on goal in last Sunday's loss to the Mammoth, and has three goals and five points in nine career showdowns against the Panthers.

This goes without saying. Brad Marchand is not sure how he's going to react emotionally when the Bruins and the Garden crowd pays tribute to him Tuesday night. But in between the whistles, and even after the whistles, you know Marchand is going to want to show Don Sweeney and the rest of the Boston front office what he wasn't willing to extend. That's just his personality, and nobody knows that better than those of us in Boston.

And though Marchand comes into this game without any career points against the Bruins (obviously), he should feel right at home in this building. In fact, Marchand’s 506 points are the second-most by any NHL player on TD Garden ice its doors opened in 1995, trailing only Patrice Bergeron (559).

Panthers forward Sam Reinhart is quickly becoming one of hockey's most prolific Bruins Killers. Becuase that's just what the Panthers needed more of, right? Anyway, Reinhart comes into Tuesday's contest off to a slow start (by his standards) with just two goals and an assist through seven games.

But, again, he has excellent career numbers against the Bruins, with 18 goals and 35 points in 43 head-to-heads with Boston. Reinhart has been especially deadly against the B's since joining the Cats, with 11 goals and 18 points in 15 regular-season games against Boston since joining the Panthers in 2021.