Brad Marchand admits “still hurts to this day” that Bruins lost Cup Final in 2013

Share

BOSTON – Brad Marchand has won a Stanley Cup during his sometimes controversial, mostly outstanding career, and he’s also gotten the most bang for his buck when it comes to celebrating afterward with that Cup.

He’s also been to the Stanley Cup Final twice and was with the Bruins again in 2013 when the B’s famously lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games, and weren’t able to bring home a championship at a time when Boston really could have used one. The Cup Final was in the months following the Boston Marathon bombing with the Bruins playing the first pro sports game in Boston, against Buffalo, following the April terrorist attack.

For all of those reasons and more Marchand still holds onto the heartache of losing that chance at a second Cup title six years ago, and clearly is using that as motivation with another opportunity this spring against the St. Louis Blues.

“It was so sweet to win, but it hurts to lose. It was devastating. It still hurts to this day. I probably look back more on the loss and what I would do differently than the win [in 2011],” admitted Marchand, who had just four goals in 22 games during the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs and wasn’t a big factor in that final series. “When you lose something like [the Stanley Cup Final] when you’re that close and you work that hard, it never leaves you. Hopefully we don’t feel that again.”

Certainly it sounds like Marchand has beaten himself up a bit over the Cup Final loss in 2013, but they also lost to the best team of the decade in the Blackhawks. They were also extremely banged up in that Final with players like Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara hurting at the very end as well. 

Still it’s that kind of big game experience, knowing what it feels like to both win and lose in the Stanley Cup Final, that’s going to give Marchand and the Bruins a massive advantage headed into the best-of-seven series against a St. Louis Blues team with just four Cup Final games of experience (all for winger David Perron) on their roster’s resume. 

Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.

Contact Us