How Ray Bourque Influenced Viral Brad Marchand-Fan Phone Video

Did a conversation Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand had with Bruins legend and hockey hall of famer Ray Bourque when Marchand was 19 play a role in the still viral video he recorded on a young fan’s phone a week ago?

Just prior to the Boston Bruins jetting off to Denver for their tilt with the best team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, tomorrow night, Marchand took time to recount the now-famous moment he jokingly stole a young fan’s phone as he walked off the ice following warmups on Jan. 18, recorded a fun video and gave the phone back.

“It kind of happened, I was coming off the ice and we always give fist-bumps to the kids,” Marchand recounted Tuesday morning. “Coming off I had time to stop and sign some stuff and a kid had a phone hanging over the glass. So I kind of took it just joking around and pretending I was taking it and then I saw he was recording a video, so I thought I’d leave him a little message, have fun, thought it was a pretty cool way to get the phone back and look back at it to kind of have it as a keepsake from the game.”

Obviously when you’re at the game and you’re getting prepared to do the job and everything but I remember being a kid. …the Bruins and I think Tampa played in Halifax growing up, and I remember hanging over the walkway and how amazing it was to see the players and have them interact. So, it’s always good to do. The kids remember that and enjoy it. So, I thought again, it would be a pretty cool keepsake.”

Marchand was then asked if there was a moment or person early in his hockey career, that helped him realize even more how important it is to appreciate the fans and be a role model for kids? He immediately went back to a dinner he had with Bourque prior to beginning what has become a likely hall of fame career for himself with the Boston Bruins.

“It kind of more started when I was 19, I had dinner with Ray Bourque at a charity event,” Marchand recalled. “I’ll never forget what he said to me; I’ve come back to it a lot and it’s very easy when you’re in. …you have a long career, you get comfortable in the league or comfortable in the organization to kind of forget where you’re at, forget how fortunate we are, how lucky we are to be in the position we’re in. To be living our dreams and to be living other people’s dreams, and you kind of take it for granted at times.”

As Marchand explained, Bourque made him realize that the admiration and celebrity status he has now could disappear once he’s retired and finds himself looking at his career in the rearview mirror.

“So, there’s been numerous amount of times where I’ve come back to this. He told me when. …every kid wants an autograph, or approached you and wants to talk to you, just remember to enjoy it, don’t take it for granted, enjoy those moments because when you retire, nobody cares anymore,” the Boston Bruins winger explained. “Nobody cares about what you’ve done or who you are. You’re irrelevant essentially. It’s always the new players that are in the league, the superstars that are in the league at that point that they care about and people forget pretty quick.

So, it’s something that I’ve come back to a lot and it just keeps you grounded, keeps you humble, and makes you understand, again, how fortunate we are when I remember those things. Guys like him and that’s coming from one of the best players to ever play the game when he’s talking like that, it hits home. So I thought that was good advice to learn at a young age.”

If you haven’t seen how Marchand definitely gave this Boston Bruins fan a ‘keepsake’, here ya go: