The Boston Bruins, one of the original six teams, have been seen during their 93-year history as the Big Bad Bruins. They haven’t lived up to that name recently, where they’ve been in a playoff drought the last two years.
Boston’s alternate captain Patrice Bergeron and teammate Brad Marchand arguably had their most productive season last year, where Bergeron finished with 32 goals and 36 assists for 68 points and Marchand had 37 goals and 24 assists for 61 points. The team also had another 30-goal scorer during the 2015-2016 campaign, Loui Eriksson, who left for the Vancouver Canucks this offseason.
Before the 2016-2017 season got underway, the World Cup of Hockey was brought back for its third installment and was played in Toronto, Canada from Sept. 17 to Sept. 29. The U.S. was said to have put together a roster in order to defeat Canada, but that didn’t happen. Canada was by far the favorite, as they usually are in the game of hockey.
Team Canada’s top line was composed of two Bruins and one Pittsburgh Penguin, including Bergeron, Marchand and the potential face of the National Hockey League, Sidney Crosby.
Canada Head Coach Mike Babcock, who’s in his first year with the Toronto Maple Leafs after being with the Detroit Red Wings for 10 years, thought that this line would be extremely productive.
Babcock considered when Bergeron and Crosby played together at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, as their chemistry was fascinating and knew that placing Marchand in the trio would benefit them and the team.
There was talk that Marchand could possibly sign with the Penguins after the conclusion of this season, but he erased any chance of that happening when he signed an eight-year, $49 million contract with the Bruins on Sept. 26.
Bergeron and Marchand play well with Crosby, with a reason being that he’s perceived as the best player in the world.
Even though Crosby is not a member of the Bruins and Marchand is likely to never be on the Penguins, they developed chemistry while they were on Team Canada.
The trio played exceptionally well during the World Cup of Hockey, as they helped Team Canada win the best-of-three tournament by defeating Team Europe in the final, two games to none. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara gave Europe a 1-0 lead in the first period of game two and it looked as if it would stand to force a decisive game three.
With a few minutes remaining in the third period, Bergeron scored the tying goal, getting it past Jaroslav Halak. Crosby had the secondary assist on the play, giving him a tournament-leading 10 points. Marchand would go on to score the game-winning goal with just 43 seconds left, which claimed the championship for Canada. Crosby went on to win the Most Valuable Player award.
Marchand might not be a two-time Stanley Cup champion like Crosby, or a 3-time Selke Award winner like Bergeron, but he’s proving to be one of the grittiest and most skillful players in the league and always has that agitator mentality that gets under everyone’s skin.
