Brad Marchand shares blunt take on Bruins’ record-setting season originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins are laser-focused on one goal, and it’s not becoming the best regular-season team in NHL history.
That goal is actually within reach for the Bruins: Their 91 points through 56 games (43-8-5) tie an NHL record for the fewest games to reach 90 pointsand they’re currently on pace to break the NHL records for most points (133 by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens) and wins (63 by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning) in a regular season. season.
But Brad Marchand was in no mood to talk about regular-season records Wednesday.
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“People have talked a lot about some of these records, that we could potentially hit or we have hit. Nobody cares about those in this room,” the veteran winger told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski. “We could care less about any of these regular-season records. Because they really don’t mean anything.”
To Marchand’s point, neither the ’95-’96 Red Wings nor the ’18-’19 Lightning went on to win the Stanley Cup; Detroit was bounced by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals, while Tampa Bay was actually swept out of the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Marchand has been in the NHL long enough to know that regular-season success doesn’t always translate to the postseason, which is why he and his teammates are taking a blinders-up approach to the 2022-23 campaign.
“Before we were going through this season, if you asked any of the guys on this team who owned any of those records, nobody would know, because nobody cares. Because it’s not about the regular season,” Marchand said. “As soon as somebody brings it up, it’s in one ear and out the other.”
In fact, you could make the case that the Bruins would be better off not winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL team with the best regular-season record. The last nine Presidents’ Trophy winners haven’t advanced past the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs — two of which were Marchand’s Bruins (in 2014 and 2020).
“If you win the Presidents’ Trophy but you don’t win the Cup, nobody cares. That’s what we know about this team,” Marchand added.
Fortunately, Boston has three team leaders — Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci — who has been with the club since it won the Stanley Cup back in 2011. That makes the Bruins relatively averse to “curses” or superstition as they rumble down the stretch with the league’s best record by a substantial margin.
We’ll find out in late April, May and potentially June if Boston’s approach pays dividends.