In case you were worried that Brad Marchand’s feelings being hurt, you can save your crocodile tears.
If you missed it, the Bruins captain was on the wrong end of a tongue-lashing – punctuated with a jab to the shoulder pad – from coach Jim Montgomery on Saturday night in Utah after his bad turnover high in the offensive zone led to a Utah goal that was ultimately taken off the board because of an offsides.
Marchand felt he had it coming.
“People are very sensitive these days,” said Marchand. “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. If 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 had a much bigger issue. So the fact that that’s something we’re talking about is disappointing, but that’s the way things are today.”
While Montgomery insinuated that he may gone a little too far in the heat of the moment, he said his relationship with Marchand allows for brutally honest interactions. The water, he said, passed immediately under the bridge.
“Between Marchy and I there doesn’t need to be a conversation. Him and I are both emotional people,” said Montgomery. “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.”
It’s not the first time when Montgomery’s had an uncomfortable interaction with a star player. In the playoff series against the Maple Leafs last season, he called out a struggling David Pastrnak, who like Marchand later said he deserved it.
“You’ve got to have the ability to hold your best players accountable and turnovers have been a big problem for us this early in the year,” said Montgomery. “So when you’re making lineup decisions, line combination decisions, a lot of those things factor in. I’m fortunate that I have the leaders that I do here where I can have that hard, firm relationship but also have the relationship where they can come to me if they don’t think something’s right with the way we’re playing or whatever. And I listen.”
Montgomery said he does have to be careful about which players he lights into.
“You don’t see me doing that on a young player, because they need the freedom and growth,” said Montgomery. “They know we’re going to talk to them, show them video. But a player of (Marchand’s status) or Pastrnak, I could just talk to them on the bench.”
The B’s went into the Dallas game at 3-3-1 and Montgomery admitted that his team hadn’t even played as well as the record would indicate. There have been lots of growing pains as a team and turnovers, along with penalties, have been a bugaboo. The captain is not immune.
“There needs to be accountability in this room,” said Marchand. “I made a bad mistake in a bad time of the game. That’s something that’s not acceptable and I shouldn’t have done it to begin with. I expected to hear about it not only from him but a bunch of guys on the bench, too. I should be held accountable in that situation and I’m glad that he did.”
Marchand was still looking for his first goal going into Thursday’s game against the Dallas Stars at the Garden. He said the turnover was a product of him feeling like he was in a groove, not that he was pressing.
“I was actually feeling really good that game and I was feeling good up to that point,” said Marchand, who’d assisted on the B’s only goal. “I was trying to do a little too much. Sometimes you get a little overconfident and I tried to make a play that I shouldn’t have because I was feeling good. That just shows that to be successful in this game you have to keep it simple and play the right way and I got away from that.”
As much as he didn’t like the turnover, Montgomery understood the motivation.
“We have a lot of players that want to be difference-makers and that’s what we love about them,” said Montgomery. “He’s trying to extend our lead to 2-0, he’s trying to get things going in our direction in a game that we didn’t have a lot of O-zone time and he’s trying to make things happen. And that’s why he’s an elite player in this league.”…
Searching for the right line combinations, Montgomery chose to finally break up the so-called fourth line, moving Cole Koepke up to the Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic line. Justin Brazeau drew back in on the line with Mark Kastelic and John Beecher.
“It is hard but sometimes you need different dynamics on a line. That line’s been playing extremely well. We’re going to leave two of them together and bbring along somebody else with them and then Koepke can add speed to another line,” said Montgomery…
Mason Lohrei was scratched and Parker Wotherspoon drew back in. Max Jones and Riley Tufte were the scratches.