Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

B’s coach on Marchand: ‘No doubt, he’s fighting it’

bradmarchandsmirkgetty

The Boston Bruins are looking fantastic, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s on a hot streak. Loui Eriksson finally scored on Saturday, but Brad Marchand continues to find himself slipping, as he saw his role and ice time diminish.

After the game, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien acknowledged Marchand’s struggles and explained his demotion to the third line to media members including CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty.

“Sometimes you have to take a guy away from where he is to take pressure off,” Julien said. “He’s fighting it. No doubt he’s fighting it.”

Marchand, 25, has one goal and zero assists in four games so far this season. His average ice time is down from 16:58 last season to 15:22 so far, as he saw fewer reps with each passing period today.

It seems that he’s even antagonizing less than usual, as he hasn’t even take a trip to the penalty box yet in 2013-14.

There are plenty of possible reasons why he’s struggling, including losing running mate Tyler Seguin via that splashy trade (maybe he just misses his friend?). He’s not the only prominent Bruins forward to struggle - Milan Lucic and his former running mate Nathan Horton slumped in 2013 - so the key is for him to work his way out of it.