Bruins notebook: Brad Marchand unbothered by All-Star snub

Plenty of people were miffed that Brad Marchand was left off the NHL All-Star roster, given his Bruins-leading point production and his general straw-that-stirs-the-drink presence in the lineup.

Brad Marchand just isn’t one of them.

Part of his attitude was in acknowledgment of the league’s system of finding a representative from every team. Maybe another part is, at this point in his career, a selection to the All-Star game is just not something that really stokes his competitive fire.

But mostly, it was about who is going from the Bruins — his long-time centerman, mentor and professional big brother Patrice Bergeron.

“I’m not bothered at all,” said Marchand on Friday. “It’s a nice event to go to – some years, I guess it depends where it is. But Vegas is obviously a good spot. But Bergy’s been our best player for, I don’t know what it’s been, 18 years now. He’s the best two-way player in the league and he’s the backbone of our team. I’m not surprised at all that he’s there. He deserves to be and he’s earned that right. I’m very happy for him.

“That’s how it goes when the league formatted it the way it is. There’s guys that deserve or could be there. You look at (Nazem) Kadri. I don’t think he’s on the list and he’s fourth in the league in scoring. That’s how it goes when they have the system the way it is when they need to incorporate every team.”

Nothing lights up Marchand’s eyes like when the subject turns to Bergeron. Both his and the captain’s career fortunes turned for the better back in the middle of the Stanley Cup season of 2010-11 when Claude Julien bumped Marchand up from the fourth line to play with Bergeron and Mark Recchi. The Bergeron-Marchand pairing has become one of most successful partnerships in NHL history.

What amazes Marchand is not necessarily how well Bergeron is playing at the age of 36, but simply how he still plays.

“To be able to put your body on the line the way he does every night and to compete the way he does every night, there’s a lot of guys who can play a long time in this league but they don’t play hard necessarily. They kind of stay out of the dirty areas, don’t compete, don’t block shots, don’t battle the way Bergy does,” said Marchand. “But the way he uses his body and beats his body up, during the last 20 years, I think those are the guys you really get impressed with and he continues to do it every single night. He leads every night. He’s always the hardest working guy on the ice. When you see that out of your captain, your best player, your leader, you’re in awe of that all the time. I think our team is spoiled and the organization is spoiled. I know every team in the league would love to have him as their captain and leader and be able to bring that culture. We’re very fortunate it’s our team and we get to learn from him. He’s a huge part, him and (Zdeno Chara), the driving factor why this organization turned around and is what it is today.”

Another factor is at play. There is a distinct possibility that this is Bergeron’s final season. He said at the start of the season that he would wait till after this season to make his decision on whether he wants to continue playing.

Has Marchand thought what life would be like without Bergeron?

“I try not to. It was obviously a big piece losing Z – and (David Krejci) for that matter. The two of those guys had been staples of this team for long time. And like I said, those guys and Bergy completely turned this organization around,” said Marchand. “There’s the management and staff and all that. But in the room, those are the guys that did it. Losing Z was a huge piece of that puzzle but the culture is hard to change and Bergy’s kind of the next step in that. You can’t replace guys like that, what he brings to the table on and off the ice, his leadership values, the way he controls the room and the bench, the way he’s able to have a feel for the pulse for how guys are feeling off the ice and how he can approach them, things like that. He’s a guy that we’re not going to be able to replace when that time does come. But we’re not thinking about that right now. Hopefully it’s a long time down the road. In the meantime, we’ve got to cherish the time that we have him here and take advantage of that.”

Availability changing

Coach Bruce Cassidy said that Derek Forbort, out of COVID protocol, skated on Friday and could make his return on Saturday against Nashville. Connor Clifton and Matt Grzelcyk remained in the protocol.

Trent Frederic (upper body) is not available for Saturday.

Into the thick of it

The B’s are in the thick of of their brutal schedule right now. Their win over Philly was their eighth game in 13 days and it was a taxing one. With their inexperience on the back end no doubt forcing Cassidy’s hand a bit, as well as a special teams and a lengthy 6-on-5, Bergeron played a season-high 23:08 while Marchand was close behind at 22:47. Fatigue may have played a factor in the team’s overall sloppy second period.

Asked if he may have to look down the road at strategically giving guys nights off here and there, Cassidy said standings would have to play a part in that, but he’d look to manage players’ minutes in- game before putting guys on the ninth floor.

“I’ll be the first to tell you, most guys don’t want (to sit). They want to be out there. I think it’s more of an in-game thing were as a coach you limit tough minutes for the players and hopefully get through it,” said Cassidy.

Bad blood with Preds

It should be an interesting matinee at the Garden against the Predators. The B’s were not happy at all with a run Filip Forsberg took at Bergeron in the B’s 2-0 win on Dec. 2 in Nashville, a hit that broke the captain’s nose.

With the Jeremy Swayman (who had a 42-save shutout against the Preds) now in Providence, Linus Ullmark will get the start.