Brad Marchand Named Captain

    The Boston Bruins officially named Brad Marchand as the new team captain on September 20th. Marchand has played 14 seasons with the Bruins since the year 2009. Marchand has been a 6 time all star he has scored 319 goals on 715 total points. Marchand was an alternate captain for the past 5 seasons along with being a Stanley Cup Champion in 2011. At the end of the day it Marchand was the next in line to be the Captain of the Boston Bruins. 

    Brad Marchand is a polarizing player that can't be understated. He is always pestering he is a gritty player. Bruins fans will remember of course his most notorious play of licking Ryan Callahan in 2018. What this does is when they need it most the Bruins need to return to being the scrappy team that they were known for in their history. Teams would always be afraid of the BIG BAD BRUINS and that has been lost over the last few years in my eyes.  

    The scrappy Bruins of old looked to have been lost to a finesse style of hockey, that was flashy and pure but lacked physicality and toughness. 2019 is an obvious example when the Boston Bruins had a high flying passing and scoring offense. It exhibited absolute prowess on the offensive end the Bruins were the favorite over the St. Louis Blues to win the cup but would fall short to the physicality coming from the Blues. Then of course you can look to the team last year the Bruins with essentially the same roster smashed the NHL Record for total wins at 65 total wins and total points at 135 becoming the greatest regular season team in the history of hockey. The Bruins would host Florida another gritty physical team and get bullied off the ice losing in 7 games holding the wrong side of one of the greatest upsets in all time of all sports. 

    The point of the history lessons comes to the roster makeup itself both of these examples host the same set of players essentially, barring goal tender Tukka Rask of course. The Boston Bruins now have lost Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci and theirs no question that without those two players your team got worse. I just hope with Brad Marchand given the reigns he can create a more physical culture with the Bruins. They are going to need to grow some grit and toughness because they have lost so many superstars over the off season. Taylor Hall Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Bertuzzi is a lot going out the door so if the Bruins are to remain competitive this season they will need to become a tough physical team that I just have seen fade over the last few years. 

    My next Blog on the Bruins will likely feature this question but if you made it this far I will send you off with a tease... Will the Boston Bruins make the playoffs? It is going to be quite the ask, especially after losing all of the talent that they did. The Bruins doubled down on the bear hug goal tender combo which could just get them in. Ullmark and Swayman are undoubtedly the best goalie depth chart in the league, they still have great defenders in Grzelcyk, Lindholm and McAvoy. The Bruins also still have David Pasternak who is a complete stud goal scorer, if Charlie Coyle Jake Debrusk and Pavel Zacha can step up then maybe just maybe they can sneak in. I will save the rest of this story for another day. The Bruins play their 2nd pre season game tomorrow at 7 against the Buffalo Sabres. The NHL season kicks off on October 11th where the Bruins host old friend Taylor Hall and the Chicago Blackhawks.