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Battle of Boston rookies: Brad Marchand thrives while Tyler Seguin sits in Game 1

Tyler Seguin

When the season began, many around the league expected that 2010 second overall selection Tyler Seguin would be able to thrive with the Bruins. After all, the Bruins were coming off a great playoff run and were looking to improve upon that. Adding one of the premiere prospects in the draft figured to be a huge boost to the Bruins lineup and give them an offensive jolt the team could use. On the flipside of that, Brad Marchand was a guy many outside of Boston likely had never heard of.

As the season rolled along, Marchand honed his game and became an invaluable contributor as a grind line forward and penalty killer with some scoring touch. Marchand finished the season with 21 goals and 20 assists while Seguin closed the season with 11 goals and 11 assists. Marchand became an instant villain for fans in Montreal when he voiced his thoughts on the Canadiens players about how they “run their mouths.”

Now with a playoff series between the two teams starting tonight, it’s Marchand getting to play a prominent role in the proceedings while Seguin watches the game from the press box. While many will want to read a lot into why Seguin is sitting out, coach Claude Julien looks at things practically. CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty gets the sensible take.

The scratch isn’t such a bad thing for the 19-year-old Seguin to sit and watch the playoff-level of intensity to start things off, but there’s a very good chance they’ll need him on the power play before it’s all said and done in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

“There’s no logic here,” Julien said. “I think it’s just we’ve got twenty guys in our line-up tonight that we feel is the line-up we want to go with.”


This isn’t like what happened with Phil Kessel years ago in the playoffs where he was benched for not meeting Julien’s expectations. Seguin had been seeing time out of the lineup to wrap up the season. He’ll learn from everything and he’ll eventually get his shot to play in these playoffs and certainly more in the future. Being humbled in this way will help him mature and hungrier when he does get in the lineup.

For now, it’s Marchand’s time to shine for the Bruins they’ll just hope that he thrives off the heat he’ll get from the fans in Montreal.