It's been hard not to notice the sub par nature of Brad Marchand's play this season.
Marchy has played in 34 games thus far and is 10th on the team with 14 points. He has a +7 rating. Now, I know it is still early in the season. However, the numbers are not in Marchy's favor right now compared to his past performances.
Marchy has played in 34 games thus far and is 10th on the team with 14 points. He has a +7 rating. Now, I know it is still early in the season. However, the numbers are not in Marchy's favor right now compared to his past performances.
Now what this graph shows is the number of goals and assists Marchand had in the first 34 games of the past three seasons compared to the number of goals and assists he has during this season.
As you can see, Marchand is severely lagging when it comes to helping the team offensively. In fact, he's becoming some what of a liability to the team right now.
Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed his ring kissing, cup lifting shenanigans against the Canucks. I also acknowledge that Marchy is known as the little ball of hate for a reason and I, along with most other fans, do love him for his ability to thoroughly agitate the majority of players (and their fans) in one fell swoop. However, in the past, these shenanigans were acceptable because he could back up his taunting in points (i.e. tussle with Matt Cooke and score on the next play). But this season, he has no such luxury and yet he continues to taunt those who are statistically doing better than he is.
I mean for god sake it would have been one thing to kiss the ring finger while playing the Canucks if a. we were winning the game and b. if he played any part in us winning the game. But neither of those things happened. In actuality, Ryan Kesler (the brunt of Marchand's shenanigans) is doing far better than Marchy right now with 26 points off 15 goals and 11 assists in 36 games.
And after watching Marchand once again play no part in us winning a game and instead getting called for a boarding penalty that very well could get him spoken to by the league last night, many people are starting to say: something needs to be done to kick start Marchy's game.
But the question becomes what does Coach and the organization do to achieve that? My answer: sit him out a couple games.
Marchand is getting a little bit too comfortable on this team. It's like he feels no pressure to produce or follow the guidelines the team sets because he thinks he's guaranteed a spot on the roster no matter what due to the remaining 3 years on his contract. That's not something this organization can accept considering the amount of money we're paying him to do the one thing he hasn't done: produce.
The team needs to make him realize that they're not going to tolerate him being just a rat on this team and that his spot is not a sure fire thing. That he can be replaced with players who are dying to get their chance to prove themselves and who won't stop trying to do that throughout their time on the team. Players who will continually give their all to make their team as successful as they can be for as long as they play. Players who will produce.
I guarantee that if Marchy feels this kind of competition, he's going to smarten up and he's going to smarten up fast because he has no other options. Because we all know that Marchand is capable of being the full package: an offensive force, an energy creator and an agitator all bundled up into a 5'9" ball of hate. But this player needs to be found again and soon and the only people who can help him do that is the Bruins organization.
So let's hope the organization figures something out soon (preferably something drastic enough to give him a swift kick in the ass) so that he can get back to playing the good old Marchand hockey we all know and love.
Until next time,
Keep calm and Bergeron!
As you can see, Marchand is severely lagging when it comes to helping the team offensively. In fact, he's becoming some what of a liability to the team right now.
Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed his ring kissing, cup lifting shenanigans against the Canucks. I also acknowledge that Marchy is known as the little ball of hate for a reason and I, along with most other fans, do love him for his ability to thoroughly agitate the majority of players (and their fans) in one fell swoop. However, in the past, these shenanigans were acceptable because he could back up his taunting in points (i.e. tussle with Matt Cooke and score on the next play). But this season, he has no such luxury and yet he continues to taunt those who are statistically doing better than he is.
I mean for god sake it would have been one thing to kiss the ring finger while playing the Canucks if a. we were winning the game and b. if he played any part in us winning the game. But neither of those things happened. In actuality, Ryan Kesler (the brunt of Marchand's shenanigans) is doing far better than Marchy right now with 26 points off 15 goals and 11 assists in 36 games.
And after watching Marchand once again play no part in us winning a game and instead getting called for a boarding penalty that very well could get him spoken to by the league last night, many people are starting to say: something needs to be done to kick start Marchy's game.
But the question becomes what does Coach and the organization do to achieve that? My answer: sit him out a couple games.
Marchand is getting a little bit too comfortable on this team. It's like he feels no pressure to produce or follow the guidelines the team sets because he thinks he's guaranteed a spot on the roster no matter what due to the remaining 3 years on his contract. That's not something this organization can accept considering the amount of money we're paying him to do the one thing he hasn't done: produce.
The team needs to make him realize that they're not going to tolerate him being just a rat on this team and that his spot is not a sure fire thing. That he can be replaced with players who are dying to get their chance to prove themselves and who won't stop trying to do that throughout their time on the team. Players who will continually give their all to make their team as successful as they can be for as long as they play. Players who will produce.
I guarantee that if Marchy feels this kind of competition, he's going to smarten up and he's going to smarten up fast because he has no other options. Because we all know that Marchand is capable of being the full package: an offensive force, an energy creator and an agitator all bundled up into a 5'9" ball of hate. But this player needs to be found again and soon and the only people who can help him do that is the Bruins organization.
So let's hope the organization figures something out soon (preferably something drastic enough to give him a swift kick in the ass) so that he can get back to playing the good old Marchand hockey we all know and love.
Until next time,
Keep calm and Bergeron!