Brad Marchand admitted some rust when he first jumped back into the lineup after a five-game suspension from the NHL for his low-bridge hit on Sami Salo.
Marchand was also able to jump back onto the power play unit when Nathan Horton went down against the Philadelphia Flyers with a concussion, and the results have been pretty impressive. The Bs agitator was on the PP unit at the start of the season, but his man advantage time had been nearly nonexistent over the last month prior to the Horton injury.
Marchand also had a few chances early in the game he didnt bury before toe-picking on a potential breakaway chance right in front of the net. It was an adventure in the worst possible sense of the word, but the left winger found a way to make it a happy ending against the Sens.
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We had a lot of opportunities early on that normally would be goals and we were unable to capitalizeit was a little frustrating, but it was great to be able to tie it up in the third period, said Marchand. We started playing like ourselves in the third; we did a great job finding a way to win and at the end of the day thats what matters. We have to clean up different parts of our game and get back to where we were playing in the third. We just have to build on how we played on the third and hopefully continue that in the next game.
Putting Marchand on the man advantage was a good start for the Bs.
Marchand has had a power play goal in each of the last two full games since being placed onto the power play and is now tied with Tyler Seguin for fourth on the Bruins with four man advantage scores this year.
Marchands game-tying score in Tuesday nights 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators was his typical special teams score. Joe Corvo fired off a shot from the right point that Craig Anderson was able to make the initial stop on, but the puck bounced right back to the goal-mouth.
The 5-foot-8, 183-pound Marchand outmuscled 6-foot-3, 220-pound Chris Phillips for the loose puck right in front of the net and immediately flicked the biscuit back into the open net. That was the capping moment on a solid night for both Marchand and Tyler Seguin, who both drew penalties that led to power play goals in the first and third period helping power the Bs.
Its nice being back on the power playyou build a little more chemistry with the line and evident out there when we move the puck around like we can, said Marchand. We got some opportunities and a couple goals. Hopefully we can keep building off that.
The puck was just kind of bouncing around and thats my job to be in front of the PP. It was nice the puck came bouncing my way.
It wasnt pretty, but it was honest, hard hockey work that helped Marchand and the Bruins pull out a game in the third period that perhaps they didnt deserve.