Brad Marchand was voted the NHL’s best trash-talker in an NHLPA survey of an entire league full of his peers. Oddly he was also voted the NHL’s worst trash-talker by that same group of fellow hockey players as well.
But there’s one NHL player that you’ll never catch the impish Marchand talking trash to across the entire league.
That’s right — it’s his linemate-for-life and the teammate who's kept him on the straight and narrow for his entire career: Patrice Bergeron.
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In addition to being a future Hall of Famer and the ultimate winner with a Stanley Cup, Olympic gold medal, a World Cup championship and a World Junior title on his resume, Bergeron has been on the same line as Marchand since midway through the 2010-11 NHL season, which marked Marchand’s first year in the league.
It’s no surprise then that Marchand idolizes Bergeron in a way, and hasn’t ever even raised a voice to No. 37 after all those years together. In fact, if it’s anything at all, it’s Bergeron being pushed to read the riot act to his mischievous left winger every once in a while.
“I absolutely would never [chirp Bergeron]. I don’t bite the hand that feeds me,” said Marchand during a virtual town hall on Zoom with Bruins season ticket holders that was hosted by Bruins.com writer Eric Russo and 98.5 hockey analyst Bob Beers. “I’m a little smarter than that. I think the most we’ve ever gotten into it is when [David Pastrnak] and I have gotten into it and then Bergie has to yell at the both of us to stop yelling at each other. We talk literally after every shift. We talk about something. I don’t ever have to talk to him about getting me the puck because he’s always getting us the puck.
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“It’s kind of to the point where we know when we miss a pass to each other. We may not see it right away, but we see it when the guy is passing by that we missed something backdoor. We have that kind of communication, and kind of talk about where that opening occurred and how we might be able to do it again. But I would never start an argument with Bergie or yell at him for something like that. But he’s had to give it to me a couple of times.”
So now it’s been settled. We now know the only player in the entire NHL that the king of trash-talking would never dare talk any smack to during a game.