Brad Marchand’s Antics Should Motivate the Maple Leafs – The Hockey Writers –

The NHL Playoffs may be played on the ice, but teams aren’t just trying to score more goals than their opponents, they’re also trying to get into their heads. Sometimes it happens naturally when a goalie is on a roll and becomes unbeatable in the mind of the other team’s players, think Jaroslav Halak during the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins series in the spring of 2010. Other times, psychological warfare happens in the media where players try to steal the show with the quote of the day, think Patrick Roy after being provoked by Jeremy Roenick. Reporters told the Avalanche goaltender what Roenick had said about him:

I’d like to know where Patrick was in Game 3, probably up trying to get his jock out of the rafters.

Roy had just the right answer for the Blackhawks’ center even though his English wasn’t perfect back then:

I cannot really hear what Jeremy says because I got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ear.

Trash-talking is an art and it’s never easy to strike the perfect balance, you want to unsettle the opponent, but you do not want to motivate them. Talk to former Quebec Nordiques’ goalie coach Daniel Bouchard who, in the first round of the 1993 Playoffs and after Quebec had taken a 2-0 lead in the series, famously said he had found a flaw in Roy’s game (from ‘Winning and Nothing Else‘, Les Éditions Libre Expression, page 338, 2007). Quebec lost the next four games while the Canadiens would go on to win the franchise’s 24^th Stanley Cup. Bouchard shouldn’t have poked the bear there…

Marchand the Super Pest

Last night in Boston’s win over the Maple Leafs, Brad Marchand had a great game scoring two goals and adding an assist to his tally, but after scoring the Bruins’ fourth goal into an empty net, he skated by the Maple Leafs’ bench and declared while approaching the Bruins’ bench:

It’s going to be over in five!

Did Brad Marchand just say “It’s over in 5”??? @MapleLeafs @BizNasty2point0 This is the turning point. Let’s use it as fuel. Not losing another game in this series pic.twitter.com/JaRBq9MdD4

— JS (@leafsfanJS) April 25, 2024

This coupled with Marchand’s offensive production in the game and his antics to get under the Maple Leafs’ skin ensured the Bruins’ captain got right into the Maple Leafs’ heads.