Bruins captain Brad Marchand calls out teammates ahead of road trip

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Joshua Deeds
November 12, 2024 (9:00)

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The Boston Bruins succumbed to the rebuilding Ottawa Senators, 3-2 in overtime this past Saturday. Linus Ullmark and company returned with a vengeance, and Brady Tkachuk would put a stake in the Bruins' hopes of a win.

Brad Marchand would make a statement on the lack of effort from the squad.

«We just gotta take it day by day and obviously we want to get better, we want to try to improve every day, but it's just not happening right now,» Marchand said after Saturday's game at TD Garden.

Of course, the Bruins have made it known they need to improve, but what are the Bruins and Jim Montgomery to turn things around?

Marchand thinks it could be the team's mentality, that is keeping them in the dumpster.

«Sometimes when you lack confidence or you're overthinking your execution is slow. We need to get out of our head,» he said. «Stop thinking and just start playing. It comes down to will and compete at this point. We need to start understanding that we need to be better. Sometimes when you're thinking about where you're supposed to be, you're a half-second late and it's too slow in this league.»

He thinks they need to find inspiration and engage emotionally on the ice.

«You've got to find ways, right? That's, that's our job. We have to find ways to bring different emotion to the game and play with emotion at different times,» he said. «Whether you've got to fake it until you make it or find different ways internally, externally, whatever it is. Our team is supposed to be a big, strong aggressive team and we haven't been showing that as of late.»

However, Marchand thinks they don't need to overreact when it comes to correcting play. They have had a string of three wins and could continue to turn it around if they find the right formula.

«That's one thing too I can't take away. We've been doing some good things lately, so a bad period or bad period and a half, whatever it is, you can't dwell on that and you got to take it and learn from it,» he said. «Understand, we need to be better in a few areas, but the world's not ending. We've got to continue to be better. We're not going to sit here and mope around. We'll forget about this one tonight and find ways to be better Monday.»

The Bruins are currently, 7-7-2 in the Atlantic Division, 3rd in what used to be one of the tougher divisions in the league.

Now, is a group of rebuilding teams, and former Stanley Cup champions, like the Lightning.

This play shouldn't be acceptable, and fortunately for the Bruins Marchand is settling standards of play. Let's hope the B's can follow through.