Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand may have changed over offseason

The talk during the Boston Bruins offseason is that Brad Marchand would return a changed player. It appears the rumors were correct.

The pronunciation of Brad Marchand’s last name isn’t the only thing that’s changed (it’s Mar-shond according to the Boston Bruins winger). The winger returned with a new style of play

After the licking incident of the 2018 playoffs where Marchand was licking opposing players, Bruins management and even Marchand himself said that things needed to change. Now so far this season Marchand has yet to lick someone, but that isn’t the change I’m talking about.

Marchand is a much more generous player this season. So far this season Marchand has 7 points, all being assists.

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This season you haven’t seen Marchand shooting as much. At this point last season Marchand had 5 shots, this year he has 3. Now, this may seem small, but there was a play in Monday’s game that shows how Marchand has changed.

On the power play, Marchand had a beautiful pass to set up Patrice’s Bergeron’s 2nd goal of the night. At times we could have seen Marchand circle around the net and make some magic by himself, but Marchand did the smart thing and ended up extending the Bruins lead.

Another play that sticks out is Ryan Donato’s powerplay goal against the Buffalo Sabres. Marchand gets the puck in a perfect position to snap a wrist shot, but the winger executes a perfect shot fake and feeds Donato with a beautiful pass that sets up the goal.

So even though we expect Marchand to score goals, I am not mad that he is moving the puck more. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

But if the Bruins stop scoring they will need Marchand to assert his dominance.

Next. 3 takeaways from Bruins electric 2018-19 home opener. dark

Brad Marchand looks like he is about to have a career season, and may finally win some hardware and more importantly try and win a Stanley Cup.

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