Oct 18, 2025; Buffalo, New York, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) seems to be to cross in the course of the first interval towards the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Heart. Obligatory Credit score: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Photographs A second that many Boston Bruins followers may by no means think about is about to develop into a actuality.
Former captain Brad Marchand will skate at TD Backyard for the primary time as an NHL opponent when the Florida Panthers go to their Atlantic Division rival on Tuesday evening. Each groups are 3-4-0, having misplaced 4 straight since starting the season on three-game win streaks.
A two-time Stanley Cup champion, Marchand was traded to Florida on March 7. He didn’t play as a consequence of damage when the Panthers visited the Bruins 4 days later, however his eventual return turned a foregone conclusion as soon as he inked a six-year contract in free company this summer season.
“It will be bizarre,” Marchand mentioned through NHL.com. “I feel there’s going to be a number of totally different feelings, even taking part in within the 4 Nations for Canada was totally different. There’s a mixture of feelings being on the opposite aspect of it. There’s loads that goes with the state of affairs I am in now.”
Although his pockets is a bit thinner after receiving a $5,000 unsportsmanlike conduct tremendous following a Saturday incident with Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, Marchand hopes to spark his new crew within the place the place he did the identical for 16 years as a Bruin. That is as a result of Florida is coming off a 3-0 loss in Buffalo and has scored simply 4 objectives throughout its four-game skid.
Having Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Tomas Nosek and Dmitry Kulikov on injured reserve has not helped, however the cabinet just isn’t naked.
“We’re lacking the massive guys, however however, different guys have the chance to step up and make their method within the crew and within the league,” mentioned Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. “The construction is there. We now have nice guys. It is all in our arms.”
Two days and not using a recreation supplied an ideal reset.
“There is no actual level in pondering you would be higher with these guys as a result of that is the crew that we now have,” mentioned Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “We now have to discover a solution to get a little bit tighter in all areas and be a little bit heavier on the web.”
The Bruins have been winless on a current highway journey via Vegas, Colorado and Utah — capped by a 3-2 loss to the Mammoth on Sunday.
“This was a troublesome journey. We did not play our recreation,” mentioned Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy. “We did in pockets, however we weren’t capable of get the outcomes. It is nonetheless very early. … I do not assume we should be discouraged simply but.”
Whereas Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo have been stable in web in Boston’s current defeats, offensive struggles (three objectives within the final two video games) and plentiful penalties (16 occasions short-handed on the highway journey) have contributed to the downfall since a robust begin.
Moreover, after recording greater than 30 pictures in three of their first 4 video games, the Bruins haven’t hit that mark since. Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Avalanche noticed them land simply 14.
If one factor has been clear early in new coach Marco Sturm’s Boston tenure, he is not going to be afraid to tinker along with his lineup.
“There’s going to be a number of different guys (scratched), too. I simply need us to be recent each time,” Sturm mentioned. “We’d like everybody on board, we actually do.”
Sturm performed a heavy-lifting fourth line, together with Johnny Beecher in his season debut, over David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha for a few of Saturday’s third interval.
The subsequent evening, Marat Khusnutdinov performed rather than Casey Mittelstadt and assisted on Pastrnak’s second objective, whereas defenseman Hampus Lindholm didn’t play within the second half of the back-to-back following his return from a lower-body damage.
Sturm appreciated what he noticed.
“I assumed our guys did rather well (on Sunday),” he mentioned. “They gave all the pieces that they had from the primary to the final minute. That is precisely what we wished.”
–Subject Stage Media
