Brad Marchand puts Bruins' mini losing streak in perspective: "No one's really too concerned"
BOSTON -- When it comes to bumps in the road, the Boston Bruins haven't hit too many this season. That changed this week, though, when the Bruins lost both games of their Florida trip before dropping an ugly one in Carolina.
The three-game losing streak is Boston's longest skid of the season, but alternate captain Brad Marchand said his concern level is not high at all at the moment.
"We easily could've won that game in Florida. The game we lost in Tampa -- lucky goal. So yeah, we lost a few games -- yeah, we didn't have a good game in Carolina. But if you break it down, like, I'm not concerned. No one's really too concerned about losing three in a row," Marchand said. "Like yeah, it's not ideal, but if you look at the way we lost, like I said, we gave up a bad one there in Florida and they got a lucky one in Tampa. That's gonna happen. We're playing really good teams, we're getting the best from every team we play, and we know that. So we've just gotta dial it back in a little bit. We'll be all right."
From the outside, this season has almost looked easy for the Bruins, who compiled a ridiculous 38-5-4 record prior to losing the last three games. But Marchand said that record was never really reflective of the Bruins being head and shoulders better than everyone else in the league.
"You're not gonna coast through this league, regardless," he said. "And listen, we're not that good of a team. Yeah, we're good, but we're not gonna run through this league, and we never thought that for a second. And even if you look at the games we won early on, we won because we played the right way, we play hard, and we just find a way to win. It's not like we're dominating every game. There's too much parity in this league. And even the teams that are in the playoffs right now, they could easily put up six, seven goals a night. So it's a very, very competitive league."
With the Bruins having the best record in the league for the entire season, they've naturally gotten the best shots from opponents. Marchand said that's made the games a bit harder, but the Bruins have been using other teams as measuring sticks along the way, too.
"Well I mean it makes the games harder, for sure. You're competing at the highest level every night. But we have our own measuring sticks. Teams look at us, but we look at other teams, too," Marchand said. "I mean there's easily seven or eight contending teams this year that are legit contenders, and then really any team could come out of the woodwork at this point of the year, too. I mean, you look at what St. Louis did in '19. So it really doesn't matter how teams view us. It's how we take care of our own game and how we view ourselves and how we want to try to build for the playoffs. And it does make every game a little bit harder, because teams know they need to be prepared when they play us. But that's only going to make us better down the road, too."
The Bruins will play in Toronto on Wednesday night, their final game before a long break for the All-Star Game. They'll pick things back up following the All-Star Game and their bye week on Saturday, Feb. 11.
