Bruins Video: Marchand Enjoys Dangling And Dishing

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand set up what proved to be the game-winner – a Patrice Bergeron shorthanded tally 9:40 into the second period – and added another helper on David Pastrnak’s 42nd goal of the season as the Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 Saturday at TD Garden. Marchand now has five assists in his last two games and two that were preceded by some filthy dangles through the opposing defense. Both of those led to Pastrnak goals and Marchand is enjoying the puck being on a string for him recently.

“It doesn’t happen often but they’re always fun when they do,” Marchand said. “They tend to be against the bottom teams, you don’t really do that against the top teams but it’s always fun when guys make plays and capitalize.”

Marchand now has 50 helpers to go along with 23 lamplighters and acknowledged to the media that ever since Pastrnak has become the sniper he is today, he has gone from a shoot-first to pass-first mentality.

“It’s rarely shoot,” Marchand said when asked about his mindset changing since he started playing with Pastrnak and his longtime linemate Bergeron. “Before Pasta kind of got on the line, that’s (shooting) kind of what I looked to do whenever I got inside the blue line. I was kind of the shooter and it worked but with ‘Pasta’ on the line and ‘Bergy’ and some of the tendencies we’ve created in our game, they’re the shooters and I’m the passer and I’m fine with that. It’s obviously worked and a lot of our plays are geared towards that. Obviously there’s a time and place for shooting and passing and it’s about trying to read that but they’re both very good at putting themselves in a position almost every play to get a shot off, so I’m going to give it to them cause they put in in the net.”

Here’s Marchand on that and more: