In NHL terms, saying Brad Marchand’s heart is the shape of a Maple Leaf – capital M, capital L – would be blasphemy. The team from Toronto is one of the biggest rivals of Marchand and his Boston Bruins, a frequent playoff foe that he has heartlessly helped eliminate four times during his career.
In international hockey terms, though, Canada head coach Jon Cooper used that description to pay Marchand the highest of compliments on Sunday.
“His heart’s the shape of a maple leaf, and it’s awesome to be around him,” Cooper said.
In this context, he is of course referring to the maple leaf that is a national symbol of Canada and that adorns the national team’s red-and-white jerseys, not the blue-and-white leaf that is Toronto’s logo.
Cooper has coached against Marchand as a division rival since taking charge of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2013. He got his first taste of working with Marchand at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, when Cooper was an assistant coach for Canada and Marchand was a first-line star playing alongside Sidney Crosby and Patrice Bergeron.
Nine years later, Cooper is now Canada’s head coach. Marchand is now 36 and no longer a top-line player for his team. He has instead slid down to a fourth-line role in this tournament, playing under 10 minutes per game. In Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the United States, Marchand, who was wearing an alternate captain’s ‘A’ for the game with Cale Makar out, played just 8:23.
Yet, far from being down on Marchand in any way, Cooper could not have spoken any more glowingly about the Bruins captain when asked what it has been like coaching him.
“Love him. I can’t say enough great things about him,” Cooper said. “Energy. Passion. He’s one of the elder statesmen on this team, and he seems to find the fountain of youth any time he comes into one of these tournaments. So many players are new on our team to this kind of environment. We’ve got Sid and [Drew] Doughty, but Marchy’s right there. So, those are the guys kind of bringing all these young guys under their wing, and there’s been nobody better at it than him.
“He’s one of the guys everybody turns to when everything’s kind of under fire. And then even down the stretch in games, when we were tied against Sweden, in overtime, down against the U.S., the loudest guy on the bench pumping everybody up is Brad Marchand.”
A logical follow-up might be: Then why isn’t Marchand playing more? He did score a big goal in Canada’s tournament-opening win over Sweden, after all. Cooper was not asked that; the question that led to the answer above was the final question of Sunday’s press conference.
The simplest explanation, though, would be that Canada is loaded up front, and a 36-year-old Marchand who is no longer in his prime is just not one of their nine best forwards. Looking simply at point totals, Marchand is tied for 20th among Canadian forwards in scoring this season.
Still, Canada may need to find a spark somewhere after scoring just once against the U.S. Saturday night. They need to beat Finland in regulation Monday afternoon to guarantee themselves a rematch with Team USA in Thursday night’s final. An overtime or shootout win would open the door for Sweden to go instead if the Swedes beat the U.S. in regulation Monday night. A loss of any kind would end Canada’s tournament.
Now back on his usual home ice at TD Garden, don’t be surprised if Marchand finds a way to be that spark.
