FORT LAUDERDALE – Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther.
A few days ago, that statement would’ve sounded crazy.
After this morning, it feels just right.
Meeting the media for the first time since being acquired in a trade with the Boston Bruins, Marchand, who’d spent his entire 16-year NHL career in Beantown, spoke about joining the Panthers, chasing another Stanley Cup and more during a press conference on Monday.
From big laughs to a few tear-jerking moments, continue below to see what he had to say.
QUESTION: What are the emotions that you’re feeling at this moment?
MARCHAND: It has been a whirlwind here the last few days. Obviously, it’s sad to leave a place that I look at as home. I have a lot of great memories in Boston and a ton of incredible years there, but it’s extremely exciting to be part of such an incredible group. I literally had flashbacks to back in the year that we won and some of the groups that we’ve had over the years that I looked at as an incredible chemistry and incredible culture. When you walk in here and you see the way the guys interact and the relationships that they have are not just within the room as players, but their staff and management. It shows why they’ve been the pillar of the league the last few years. I’m extremely excited to be part of the group and really looking forward to getting back on the ice and becoming part of the group.
QUESTION: You’ve only ever known one team in your career. Now that it’s a new team, new building, new logo, new gear and such, just how exciting is the idea of something new at this point of your career?
MARCHAND: The way I look at these things is, it would have been an incredible opportunity to be in Boston and play in one place my entire career, but I’ve always had the attitude that you need to be grateful for every opportunity. That gratitude piece doesn’t get lost in me, that it’s a privilege to be part of this league to be able to play here and play a game that we love every day for a living. When the trade happened, I was disappointed and sad, but I’m extremely grateful that I get to come to an incredible place, an incredible team, a very, very, very competitive team. That’s what you want. I mean, ultimately, we chase the Stanley Cup, and you want a chance to play for that every single year. To be able to be part of a great team, a team that has that opportunity again this year, I’m very grateful. You never know how long you have in this league. Never know when your last day is going to be, and you want to make the most of it. It would have been great to stay and play the career there, but this is an incredible opportunity that I’m excited about and I feel rejuvenated coming here. They’re completely different mindsets from where we were as a team and the things we’re going through. To now come in and seeing the path these guys are on and the way they’re preparing for playoffs, the way their preparation starts in the morning and the way they deal with things, it’s exciting and a great opportunity.
QUESTION: What do you think drew you to the Panthers?
MARCHAND: Obviously they’ve bounced the Bruins the last couple of years, and it has been pretty remarkable to see the growth they’ve had as a group the last few years. I think throughout this year we played the team multiple times, and I remember just thinking like that’s the team to beat this year. I thought the way that they came at you in waves all game long, the depth they had in their group, they have the experience, they know what it takes when they get in those tough situations, and that’s invaluable. They didn’t lose many guys and the guys they did were replaced with great players. I just looked at the group and that’s the team that has the ability to go all the way again. When you match the drive, experience, and the depth of the group, it’s a very dangerous combination. When things were coming up and it kind of writing was on the wall, this is absolutely the place I wanted to go.
QUESTION: How do you balance the leadership aspect that you can bring to the team with also knowing this is the first time you’ve walked into a new dressing room?
MARCHAND: I’ve had opportunities in the past where I’ve walked into different rooms with different Canada teams and things like that. The way I view coming in here is, I’m not coming to step on toes, but I’m also not going to change who I am. I just have kind of an outgoing personality and when I get in the room, in games on ice, my competitiveness kind of takes over. I get a little bit vocal and emotional at times. The great thing about when you’re part of a really good group, and I think especially in the hockey culture, guys don’t take things personally. There’s going to be moments where I’m sure I’ll be a little bit louder, maybe a little bit emotional and you know have some words with guys or whatever it is, but it’s all because I like to push. I like to make environments competitive, and that’s just who I am. I also like to have a lot of fun. I like to joke around and get to know guys. I just bumped into (Niko) Mikkola and I just said how excited I am to not get ran by him every time I touch the puck. Just things like that where you know guys have a lot of fun getting to know each other. I’m going to do that. Again, like the leadership aspect and stuff, they have an incredible leadership group. They have a ton of veteran guys with a ton of experience. They’re on the right path here and have a ton of incredible guys in the room, so excited to part of it.
QUESTION: What’s it like to not have to be the guy, to do the things you do, and to maybe have a line where you could play with a group and set the league on fire?
MARCHAND: Those guys are incredible players. They have created a niche and a game that has allowed them to have an incredible amount of success in this league. What I love about it is they play the right way. They play the type of game, there’s guys that are built for regular season, there’s guys are built for the playoffs, and they’re built for playoffs. They’re built to win. Play a winning style. They play the game 200 feet, the right way and they’re very difficult to play against. The way I look at my game, I never played a certain way because I felt like I had to for a group or to try to get the team going or something. I played my way because that’s just how I play and that’s what they do. I don’t feel like I need to change anything. I can’t change. That would just be a detriment, but I think it will have a lot of complimentary pieces of our game. I think it’s just when you look at their team, there’s a lot of guys that play the way they do. I think that’s just the way that they’re coached, to play through guys and to play hard. They all stick up for each other in piles and stuff like that because they just have the love for each other as a group, that you take care of one another, and you stick together and that’s what winning teams have. Those guys also shine in those moments and they’re guys that stir the pot and create havoc out there. I refer them as predators because you need to know where they are at all times and those are the guys that you want on your team. Those are the guys that you want to go to battle with and you want to be with. I’m really, really excited that I had the opportunity to play with Benny (Sam Bennett) and Reino (Sam Reinhart). There’s multiple guys that I’ve played with in the past, like Greersy (A.J. Greer). He’s like that. I love Greersy. When you have that many guys on the team that play like that, it’s a dangerous combination.
QUESTION: You obviously got banged up a little bit last week. How are you feeling and how’s that coming along? What’s your approach to building a bond?
MARCHAND: I’m getting better every day. I guess that’s how I would describe it. The team had the day off yesterday, so I unfortunately didn’t get to spend as much time with everyone as I would like to. I think the biggest thing when you’re not on the ice, you just spend time with the group off the ice and get to know each other. I’m hoping things go well today. I might be able to jump on the ice tomorrow, but we haven’t gone that far yet. I’m going to try a couple things today here that I haven’t been able to do yet and kind of go from there. Timeline-wise I don’t really know when I’ll be back. I’m going to shoot to get back, as that has always been something that I’ve taken a lot of pride in, trying to really limit the amount of games that I miss and trying to push through. Whatever I can to play and that won’t change here.
QUESTION: What’s it going to be like going back to Boston on Tuesday?
MARCHAND: It’s bittersweet. It’ll be great to go home, and the guys were all on the road when I got traded, so I didn’t see a lot of the guys before I left. It’ll be nice to be able to see guys and kind of say goodbye. Great to see the family again and get a bunch of my stuff. It’s great to go home, it’ll be very weird to be there as an opposing team. I guess it’s nice, but it’ll be sad a bit, too. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cam (Neely), Sweens (Don Sweeny) and Charlie (Jacobs). The guys in there that are making decisions and honestly been there a long time, I’ve gotten to know them very well. Not just on a business relationship, but personal relationships as well. We have very great friendships.
QUESTION: How much more comfortable did playing with guys like Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart with Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off make you coming into this new situation?
MARCHAND: Benny (Bennett) is great. I really had a great time getting to know him at 4 Nations. We get along really, really well. I wasn’t surprised that we did. I loved being his teammate, playing with him in the 4 Nations and very excited to be here and be his teammate again and try to go on a really good run. He’s one of those guys that you absolutely want to play with and not against.
QUESTION: Is this the first time you’ve put on Panthers gear?
MARCHAND: The first time I put anything Panthers on was last night. I was Facetiming my kids, and we were both about to hang up and there was the hat on the table. I was like before you go look at this and I put it on, and it was a weird feeling. This is the first time I’ve been decked out in the uniform, but reality is setting in here and I’m starting to feel like I’m part of the group. It’s been a whirlwind the last few days, so once you get in here and all the guys are around you start to feel part of it.
