The Spire

Billy Holmes ’25

Staff Writer

This past Thursday, September 20, marked a substantially significant day for the Boston Bruins, as they named Brad Marchand the 27th captain in their franchise’s history. Marchand is heading into his 15th season at the NHL level, all of which have been spent with the Bruins. When looking at what he has been able to achieve up to this point, Brad Marchand has had nothing short of a tremendous career in professional hockey. The 35 year old Left Winger has accumulated many impressive achievements such as five 30 goal seasons, four all star selections along with playing a pivotal role in helping the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011. Marchand will also look to add to his plethora of accolades this upcoming season, as he has the opportunity to reach the 1,000 career games played milestone. After the decision was announced, it appeared that the majority of reactions were positive from both those inside the organization along with Bruins fans. Despite the joyful reactions many had towards the announcement, a fair amount of uncertainty still remains as it relates to both Marchand and the team for the upcoming season. 

For the past three seasons, the Bruins had the luxury of having Patrice Bergeron serve as captain. However, this offseason, Bergeron decided to call an end to his illustrious 19 year NHL career as he retired from professional hockey. The team will undoubtedly miss Bergeron’s play on the ice, as he was widely regarded as one of the most well rounded players in the NHL for more than a decade. Although Bergeron was one of the most reliable, consistent players in the entire league, the leadership and professionalism he demonstrated both in and out of the TD Garden will be extremely hard to replicate. Going even further back, before Patrice Bergeron was given the captaincy, Zdeno Chara held the title of Captain for the Bruins from 2006 until his departure from the team in 2020. Chara also displayed superb skills on the ice while being a consummate professional throughout his entire time in Boston. Having such consistent and outstanding leadership on the team appears to be one of the main reasons why the Bruins have almost always competed in the playoffs over the last 17 seasons. 

When comparing Brad Marchand to Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, for many people there might be a clear difference in regards to reputation. As his career has progressed, Marchand has become known throughout the National Hockey not only for his world class play, but also because of some controversial on ice antics and behavior. His questionable behavior and lack of emotional control during his career is eloquently represented by the fact that he has served the most individual suspensions of any player in NHL history with eight served suspensions. As he has gotten older, Marchand has displayed more maturity and control, but every now and then he will still let his emotions get the best of him which will result in him committing a careless penalty or even being suspended. As the captain of the team, Marchand must realize his teammates are looking to him to set both the example and the tone. In order for the Bruins to have a successful season they need to play focused, disciplined hockey and it is up to #63 to set that precedent. 

After last season’s abysmal Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Bruins experienced quite the drastic overhaul in the offseason. The team lost both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to retirement, traded away both Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks, and were unable to re-sign Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Clifton and Thomas Nosek. Looking at these losses in totality, the Bruins lost 83 combined goals and over 200 combined points from their record breaking 65 win regular season group. The Bruins looked to remedy these losses by acquiring some respectable veterans such as Kevin Shattenkirk, Morgan Geekie, and James Van Riemsdyk to one year deals. They were also able to bring back the beloved Milan Lucic to Boston on a one year contract. This upcoming season, the Bruins will almost certainly take a step back in comparison to their historic regular season last year. After losing so many key contributors, it would be almost impossible not to regress in some capacity. However, this season will be the beginning of a new chapter for the organization, which brings a great deal of possibilities for the future of the team.