"Part Of Playoffs Is Trying To Hurt Every Player" - Brad Marchand Gives The First Actually Good Interview Answer In Hockey History
Unless you're a Boston Bruins fan, you've probably spent the better portion of the last 15 years hating Brad Marchand. He's the ultimate rat, the ultimate pest, the ultimate piece of shit who you hate to play against but would absolutely love to have on your team. It's hard to give those guys the credit they deserve if they're constantly annoying the hell out of you. But holy shit did Brad Marchand crush this interview.
We've just grown so accustomed to hockey players giving the most boring, useless canned responses during any media scrums. The moment there is a microphone in front of these guys' face, they strictly talk in coach speak. Say all the right things, don't cause any stirs, get in there and get out.
But Brad Marchand decided to speak some truth here today. He decided to take everyone to school and say the quiet part out loud. Nobody wants to admit that it would be better to hurt every player on the other team. But there can only be one Stanley Cup Champion at the end of the season. Once you get to the playoffs, there's only one team who gets to end their season with a win. If you want that to be your team? Well the other team missing some of their best players is going to help you achieve that goal. Plain and simple. You may not try to go out of your way to hurt anyone, but you're also not going to go out of your way to not hurt them either. If you have a shot, you take it. And boy did Sam Bennett take his.
Marchand had 3 options here. He could either coach speak his way out of that one and just say the sport is fast and physical, and sometimes crazy collisions like that happen. He could have been salty and gone scorched Earth on Bennett by calling him a rat fuck. Or he could have just said what everyone knows to be true, but nobody has the balls to say--that hurting players on the other team gives your team a better chance at winning a 7-game series. It might be a little barbaric, but it's true.
Brad Marchand gets it. Maybe more than anybody else out there. He's the exact type of player the playoffs were built for. And you know the moment he gets back onto the ice, it's going to be mayhem.