In the Bruins' 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals Tuesday night, Brad Marchand was able to do something he hadn't done in over a month: score a goal.
Marchand, who hadn't scored since March 9, was battling through a 16-game goalless drought that he aimed to end before the start of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The 16-game stretch without a goal was the second-longest of his career, second only to the 20 games he went without scoring during his rookie season in 2009-10, back before he was a household name and a fan favorite.
"It was good to get that one, but it hasn't been a big deal," Marchand said after Tuesday's game. "...You almost have to laugh about it."
"It gets frustrating, but then it gets to a point where it's just laughable," he added. "You can't take it too serious. I think that's what it got to, it got to the point where it's not the norm and I know that and I have much better, bigger expectations, but at the same time we're winning a lot of games and we're having a lot of fun and don't let the frustration get in the way of that."
For Marchand, who also had two assists Tuesday night, the drought caused frustration as well as a realization that he was going to have to fight through a different type of adversity this season.
"There's definitely a lot of times where I was frustrated," Marchand said. "I'm not going to say there wasn't, but after a while I started to just accept it and understand that it was one of those years where I might have to push through a little bit more adversity, which is fine. Those are the things that test you and you want to come out on the other side."
Some of the adversity Marchand has faced this season comes from an offseason labral repair surgery on both hips that he underwent in May, and the subsequent recovery led him to a late start to the season. Marchand missed the first seven games of the season, returning to the ice on Oct. 27, exactly five months after his procedures.
At different points in the season, Marchand acknowledged that his recovery had created some hurdles. "I thought I'd feel better now than I do, to be honest with you," Marchand said on March 8, just before the start of his 16-game goal drought. "...I thought I'd be kind of where I was last year right now, and I don't necessarily feel like that."
"..It just gets a little frustrating when I have an expectation to play a certain way and it's not necessarily there yet," he added.
With the depth this year's team has, Marchand said he's had the luxury of letting the drought not cause too much of a distraction for him.
"When you have the depth that we have, and the ability to score the amount of goals that we have, and we're finding different ways to win every night, it does take the pressure off," he said. "It allows me to feel comfortable and just try to get back to my game. It's special to be part of a group like this and to have that luxury, it doesn't happen everywhere."
"I wasn't going to worry about it. If we were losing a bunch of games and those goals were needed, there'd be much more pressure on that, but we're still winning every night," Marchand said.
Marchand's goal in Tuesday night's game came on the power play, which he had struggled to score on for even longer.
He hadn't scored a goal on the man advantage since Jan. 18, 35 games ago. However, Marchand still sits tied for second on the team in power-play goals with nine, behind David Pastrnak's 18.
Before the final stretch of the season, Marchand made it clear that he would prefer to play out the remainder of the season to try and set things right with his game before the playoffs.
"I'd rather play the games and feel good going into playoffs," Marchand told Matt Porter of the Boston Globe after Boston's shootout win in St. Louis on March 2, when the team had five games left on the schedule. "The more games I play, it's going to benefit me. I've missed enough this year."
Marchand says he's ready to use the final regular-season game in Montreal to prepare one last time before the postseason: "We have another big game here in a couple days. It's our last opportunity to get ready for the playoffs."
"A whole new season is starting on Monday or Tuesday, whatever it is, and we're looking forward to that," Marchand said.
