After practicing at TD Garden on Monday, Brad Marchand told reporters that it would be hard for him to not get emotional Tuesday night. He was right.
In his first game back in Boston since the trade that sent him from the Bruins to the Florida Panthers last trade deadline, Marchand was overcome by emotion following a tribute video on the jumbotron and a lengthy standing ovation from the sold-out Garden crowd during the first TV timeout.
After the game, Marchand said that the moment that really hit him "like a ton of bricks" was seeing his kids on the screen.
Marchand also received a warm reception when he first hit the ice for warmups, and when he was the last player to leave the ice at the end of the warmups.
If the Bruins had any hopes that perhaps all the emotions of the night would get Marchand off his game, that was not the case. Marchand was one of the best players on the ice and picked up two primary assists in the Panthers' 4-3 win, a game in which Carter Verhaeghe was credited with the late winner on an unfortunate bounce off Boston defenseman Andrew Peeke's skate.
Check out the tribute video and Marchand's reaction below:
And here's some of the reaction from the Bruins side of things, as David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie all weighed in on Marchand's big night: