What Brad Marchand Helped Taylor Hall, Bruins Get More Comfortable With

It was a physical game between the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators on Saturday, to say the least.

There were 91 (!!) total hits accounted for in the tilt, with 45 of those attributed to the Bruins who gave the Predators’ game right back to them — getting three penalties compared to Nashville’s two. There was one fight between Derek Forbort and Michael McCarron, and naturally, Brad Marchand had at least two monster hits during the matchup.

That aggressiveness helped Boston pull out a 4-3 victory in overtime, thanks to a greasy goal from Taylor Hall.

“If we can be physical at the right times, especially on our home ice, that’s going to be something that is a real strength of ours as the season goes on,” Hall said. “And when the playoffs start you need to be able to have that game in your bag. So that was a fun game to play.”

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Hall said Marchand, who also had a goal and an assist, has set a good example for players in games where physicality is part of the game plan.

“There’s certain guys on our team, Marchy is physical without open-ice hits, he goes to dirty areas,” Hall said. “A lot of guys on our team are starting to feel comfortable, myself included, playing that type of game and that’s how you back teams off. … And then when you get a chance to pop someone clean, you know, shoulder to shoulder, whatever it is, shoulder to chest, it’s a really good thing to do. It gets the crowd going and gets our bench going.

“It doesn’t need to be a fight every time I mean if you if you know the other team’s mad at, you know, honest hits clean hits, that’s their problem. But we know we have to do, I think you see our team has confidence playing a skill game like we did against Tampa and Washington. And then a game like today, you don’t know how physical some games are going to be and you got to be ready for anything.”

Hopefully Boston can keep that physicality, and the momentum from winning eight of its last nine games, into Tuesday’s against the Carolina Panthers at home.