Bruins Notebook: Brad Marchand makes surprise return

Few expected Brad Marchand to play on Saturday. Even coach Bruce Cassidy, who often gives the most optimistic prognoses for injuries, pretty much ruled Marchand out for the game on Friday.

And for good reason. On Thursday night, Marchand was drilled into the boards by Washington’s Garnet Hathaway, with his right shoulder taking the brunt of the hit. In obvious pain, he tried to play a couple of shifts but would have to call it a night, never a good sign.

But much to everyone’s surprise, No. 63 was ready for the puck drop against the Winnipeg Jets. He may not have had his best game. His turnover over led to the Jets’ second goal and, while he did get an assist on the David Pastrnak‘s winner, it was more of an excuse-me point after his cross-ice pass was blocked and went right to Matt Grzelcyk.

But sometimes, just showing up is all that matters, and Saturday’s game was one of those cases.

“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind. I didn’t really expect to play today either,” said Marchand, who nonetheless led all Bruin forwards in ice time (19:35). “I just give our training staff a ton of credit. They kind of threw everything at it and we just focused on trying to calm it down. (Friday) night I started feeling OK. I really wasn’t sure this morning, but I jumped on the ice and felt OK.

“It’s hard to sit out a game. It’s going to take a lot to sit out. It’s always been part of the culture of this organization that, if you feel you can play, you’ve got battle through it. You almost feel like you’re letting the guys down if you sit out. It’s a tough decision, because the last thing you want to do is put the team at a disadvantage if I did get in and had to come out at some point in the game. I’m more thankful that nothing bad happened tonight and we had a big win. It’s great to be a part of it. It’s a treat to be a part of this league and be able to play every night. You don’t want to ever miss a game.”

Marchand has been in the league for over a decade. In that time, he’s seen teammates like Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi make Herculean efforts to play through various maladies. He knows how much it matters in the room.

“There’s a respect among the group when a guy plays through something. Same thing happened with (Grzelcyk, who appeared to suffer a shoulder injury in the first period but returned to set up the game-winner.) (Charlie McAvoy) went through it the past couple of weeks,” said Marchand. “It’s not always known in the public and in the media what guys play through but there’s a tremendous amount of respect that goes to .the group when guys are willing to put their bodies on the line and play through injury and pain for each other, because that’s ultimately what it’s about, going to war and going to battle for each other every night. Again, I think it goes back to the way we were brought up in this organization. You play for the group, you play for the room and it’s about sacrifice. We have short careers in the grand scheme of things. And this group here, we all play through whatever we can. There are times when you just can’t. We saw it the other night when I couldn’t play. But when you can, it’s very hard to know you can play and pull yourself out.”

Third line shines

The B’s third line of Jake DeBrusk, Charlie Coyle and Oskar Steen had had some decent games in the past week-play, but they didn’t have much to show for it.

That changed on Saturday, when the group produced two of the B’s three goals and was a going concern all day. Steen had a strong bounce-back game after getting scratched on Thursday, scoring the B’s first goal of the game. Coyle was the No. 1 star with a goal and an assist and two drawn penalties. And DeBrusk, after having a hand in both third period goals on Thursday after Marchand went out, had his skating legs again caused the Jets trouble on the forecheck.

“Tonight we just used our forecheck, good sticks, going through guys when we can. Those pucks were kind of finding the slot and we were in good spots when we got opportunities,” said Coyle. “Even though we got scored early on, we felt like ‘Let’s keep it going. We were feeling the puck a little bit, had some chances early on. Let’s not let that goal against dictate the rest of our game.’ We stuck with it and you see what happens. (DeBrusk and Steen) played well, they were moving their feet and winning battles. And I think that forecheck really helped us.”

This and that

The B’s penalty kill came up big for the B’s, killing all four Winnipeg power-plays, including the last one that created a 6-on-4. Derek Forbort, who picked up an assist on the B’s second goal, played well down the stretch and finished with four blocks, as did his defense partner Connor Clifton…

Charlie McAvoy led all B’s skaters with 27:13 of ice time, followed by Urho Vaakanainen (23:09).