Vancouver Canucks: It's Okay to Cheer for Brad Marchand at World Cup
It’s okay to cheer for Brad Marchand on Team Canada, even after his actions in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks.
I get it, it’s still hard to watch Brad Marchand and not think about the harm he caused the Vancouver Canucks and the Sedin twins during the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. The wounds inflicted by Marchand and the Boston Bruins will take time to heal, and some people might not ever get over it. As such, it’s hard to watch Marchand put on the Maple Leaf and not want to boo him out of the building.
But it’s okay to want to cheer for him too. Marchand earned this opportunity not because he is another Sean Avery, but because he’s actually a pretty good hockey player. He’s a consistent 20-goal scorer and last year he got within three goals of 40, and that comes despite almost non-existent power play time .
In two games of pre-tournament action, Marchand hasn’t looked out of place playing with Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry on the first line. Normally, I wouldn’t take too much weight in pre-tournament games, but the games between Canada and the USA have not been normal pre-tournament games.
Marchand has also steered clear of the extra-curricular activities that made him one of the most hated players that suited up to play against the Canucks. It would be so easy for him to get in a taunting war with a player like former Canuck Ryan Kesler, but he just hasn’t been doing it.
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Former teammate Tyler Seguin even acknowledged a change in Marchand’s play in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“He’s very good at what he does,” Seguin said this week at Canada’s camp in preparation for the World Cup of Hockey. “Especially the last few years he’s found the right line between getting under other players’ skin, but also being disciplined. I think he was trying to figure that out his first year that I was playing with him. And he’s really found it now.”
Canucks fans, like any sports fans, wear their hearts on their sleeves, so it’s easy to see why it would be hard to give Marchand another chance. However, Marchand has obviously shown that the pest we hated so much in 2011 isn’t a big part of his game anymore and he can be an effective player, so it’s okay if Canucks fans want to cheer on Marchand. It’s also okay if those same fans go back to despising Marchand when he comes to town donning the black and gold again.
Marchand is the kind of player that you would love to have on your team, but you hate playing against him. It’s kind of like 2011 Alex Burrows. If we could find a way to cheer for Burrows, we can certainly find a way to put aside Marchand’s past for two weeks and cheer our hearts out for Marchand and Team Canada.
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