Montgomery Believes Marchand’s ‘Training Camp’ Is Over

Make no mistake, Brad Marchand is back, and like his Boston Bruins teammates, appears to be a man on a mission.

After offseason surgery for both of his hips, Brad Marchand missed the first eight games of the 2022-23 regular season. He came back earlier than expected but even Marchand admitted throughout November and December, that his game wasn’t quite where it needed to be. Well, if his play since the Holiday break ended is any indication, Marchand’s game is back and he is producing like the winger who has dominated statistically for much of the last decade.

“I don’t know where he finds the reserve in his tank, but it lets me know — and we’ve been seeing it ever since Christmas break, I think Brad has been our best player since the Christmas break,” Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told the media. “I think his training camp is over and he’s ready to roll.”

Since Dec. 27, the veteran Boston Bruins winger has four goals and six assists. Marchand’s 13th goal of the season 6:20 into the third period of the Bruins’ 7-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks gave him seven 5-on-5 points since Dec. 27. While Boston Bruins teammate David Pastrnak was named NHL Star of The Week with seven goals and an assist in his last four games, Marchand was keeping pace not far behind Pastrnak. The 5-foot-9, 176-pound, 34-year-old has three goals and four assists during the same span.

Montgomery had actually been pretty vocal about Marchand’s game coming around in the weeks leading into holiday break.

“We’ve seen him for a while now, do everything but score,” Montgomery said after a 7-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Dec. 19. “He’s been helping his team in so many ways and the scoring is coming. You can just feel it, and I’m sure he does too.

Montgomery was right and now he has another scoring weapon working at peak performance on the best team in the NHL.