BOSTON — After winning the Stanley Cup in his first full year in the NHL, Brad Marchand thought it would be the first of many.
After scoring the tournament-clinching goal for Team Canada in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, he expected there’d be many best-on-best events in his future.
But while the Bruins reached the finals again twice, he’s never won another Cup. Between COVID and issues between the NHL and the IIHF, there hasn’t been another World Cup of Hockey and the NHL players haven’t been to the Olympics.
The NHL 4 Nations Face-Off which concludes with Thursday’s 8 p.m. championshipis the first best-on-best event in nine years and Marchand is not taking it for granted.
“The biggest thing that I’ve learned is you really have to be grateful for the moment,” said the Bruins forward who turns 37 this year. “You come into the league, you have any kind of success early, you think it’s going to happen all the time. …You have a tournament like this and then you think it’s going to happen every two, three or four years. And it doesn’t. These moments are so few and far between. You never know when you’re going to get another one.
“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned throughout my career is that you have to embrace every opportunity to enjoy the moment,” Marchand continued. “I don’t get nervous for these things anymore because that’s what happens when you overthink it. You’ve got to do everything you can to prepare and you rely on that. ”
Marchand has been a unique player during this event. in his 16th year as a Bruin, he’s dressing in the TD Garden visitors’ locker room before playing in front of familiar fans who’ll be rooting against him.
Marchand planned to enjoy it.
“You have to just have fun with it because at the end of the day, these are the games that you’re going to remember the rest of your life,” he said. “If you want to come out of the top, the only way you can do that is to be at your best.”
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