Marchand Loving Bertuzzi’s ‘Greaseball’ Antics with Bruins

BRIGHTON, MA – Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand knows a thing or two about stirring up trouble and agitating opponents, so he appreciates a quality act of shift-disturbing when he sees one during a playoff series. It’s no surprise that Marchand enjoyed watching Tyler Bertuzzi during Monday night’s 3-1 win in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Florida Panthers as Bertuzzi grabbed a stick from Florida forward Nick Cousins and brought it back to the Boston bench before giving it a healthy stomp for good measure.

Bertuzzi took Cousins' stick to the Bruins' bench and broke it 😂 pic.twitter.com/T8Pxp8vc0w

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 18, 2023

“It’s the playoffs. There are some stupid things that happen,” said Bertuzzi after Game 1 when he racked up a pair of assists in his first career Stanley Cup playoff game. “That was one of them.”

It’s not quite to the level of Marchand stomping on Cam Atkinson’s stick and breaking it during Boston’s second round playoff series with the Columbus Blue Jackets three years ago, or, of course, the face-licking incidents from several seasons ago.

Atkinson’s stick broken

🎥 @hayyyshayyy pic.twitter.com/J6FHN7Orc7

— Alison (@AlisonL) April 26, 2019

But it’s the kind of handiwork that gets two teams to hate each other during a playoff series, and something that Marchand doesn’t have to do by himself anymore with competitive players like Bertuzzi, Trent Frederic and others around to share in the rabble-rousing between the whistles.

“I saw that yesterday. I was dying on that. I didn’t see it during the game,” said Marchand. “He’s a little greaseball…I love it. He’s a guy that you love having on your team and that stuff makes you laugh. It’s fun.”

There should be plenty more moving forward in the series as the Bruins and Panthers continue to up the ante for Wednesday night’s Game 2 at TD Garden and leave all kinds of room for animosity in a series that had a hard-hitting opening game in Boston on Monday.