Brad Marchand, Jim Montgomery brush off heated interaction on bench
The Boston Bruins are understandably a little bit frustrated right now. They lost two in a row to close out their Western road trip and are now 3-3-1 on the season entering Thursday night's home tilt with the Dallas Stars. But beyond the record, they just haven't been playing the way they think they're capable of playing, taking far too many penalties and struggling to create offense.
There was perhaps no better example of that frustration than a heated interaction that took place on the bench during the third period of Saturday's loss in Utah. After captain Brad Marchand committed a turnover that led to a would-be tying goal for Utah (it was taken off the board after a successful challenge for offsides), coach Jim Montgomery was shown on camera yelling at Marchand and shoving him on the shoulder.
The exchange went viral on social media and drew quite a bit of reaction from both local and national media, but Marchand claims he had no idea it had become "a thing."
"That's a thing?" Marchand asked with a chuckle when a reporter brought up the interaction Thursday.
Marchand went on to defend his coach's actions, saying he deserved to hear it after such a bad turnover.
"I mean, people are very, very sensitive these days," Marchand said. "It's unfortunate how coaches are scrutinized over things like that. There's a lack of accountability nowadays because people can't handle the heat. You make a mistake like that, you deserve to hear about it. I'm glad that he said something about it. If he didn't, we would have a much bigger issue. So, the fact that that's something that we're talking about is disappointing, but that's the way things are today."
Montgomery said he wasn't "ecstatic" about how he handled the situation, but that he knew Marchand could handle it and that both of them would quickly move past it.
"Between Marchy and I, there didn't need to be a conversation," Montgomery said. "Him and I are both emotional people. I'm not ecstatic with myself about it, but I don't think about it afterwards and neither does he. He's a pro. He's a great player that does so many good things for us, and he has high expectations as well. So, for us, that's over and done with."
Montgomery said it's important for him to hold everyone accountable, including his captain, and that team leaders also need to be able to come to him with any issues they have.
"I think you've got to have the ability to hold your best players accountable," Montgomery said. "Turnovers, as I said, have been a big problem for us this year, early in the year. … I'm fortunate that I have the leaders that I do here so that I can have that hard, firm relationship, and also have a relationship where they can come to me if there's something they don't think is right with the way we're playing or whatever, and I listen."
Montgomery did say that he tailors his approach to different players, though, noting that he wouldn't be as comfortable yelling at a younger player in plain view of TV cameras.
"No question. You don't see me doing that on a young player, right?" Montgomery said. "Because they need the freedom and the growth to know that… we're going to talk to them, show them video. But a player like him, like Pastrnak, I can just talk to them right on the bench."
Marchand is stuck on zero goals through seven games this season, but said the turnover in question was not the product of him pressing. In fact, he says it was just the opposite.
"No, it was the opposite. I was actually feeling really good that game," Marchand said. "I was feeling good up to that point, and just tried to do a little bit too much. Sometimes you get a little overconfident, and I tried to make a play that that I shouldn't have, because I was feeling good. So, that just shows that to be successful in this game, there's times where you just have to keep it simple and play the right way, and I got away from that."
