Just about everyone in Boston knows the Bruins have to play better if they plan on getting past the Washington Capitals in the first round. Claude Julien sounded off about his team being “too cute”, Milan Lucic has spoken his mind about how things have gone, and now Brad Marchand is saying his piece as well.
Marchand tells Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com he knows the Bruins are capable of doing better and it’s up to them to pull it off.
“We have to be better. We’re definitely doing a pretty good job playing against their line. Part of our goal is shutting down their line, but we have to be better offensively,” said Marchand. “There’s definitely a little more pressure. More things are being expected and I want to be able to contribute the same way [as the regular season]. “It’s a big time of year and we need guys to step up . . . especially with [Horton] out. The onus is on us and we have to be better. It falls on all of us to step up more.”
Considering the Bruins have scored two goals in the series, they’re lucky to be tied 1-1 in the series. The Bruins’ top players have to be more of a force though. They need Lucic and Marchand to crash the net, David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron to be set-up men, and Tyler Seguin to be a sniper.
The Caps are doing more than their part to shut down the Bruins and Braden Holtby has been outstanding, but the Bruins are better than they’ve shown. The typical nastiness we’re used to seeing from Boston that they feed off of has been absent so far in this series. Perhaps a hostile atmosphere can shake it out of them.