It hasn’t been a stellar first round series for either Brad Marchand or Tyler Seguin. They’re not producing offensively and the Bruins find themselves tied up in the best-of-seven series with the Washington Capitals. After four games with a lack of production, Bruins coach Claude Julien has seen enough.
Julien shook up his lines and moved Seguin to the third line and Marchand down to the fourth line. For these two guys, getting demoted from the second line alongside Patrice Bergeron is a setback and as Marchand tells CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty, if Julien is sending him a message he’s heard it loud and clear.
“I know I’ve got to be better and I know that. It’s on me to step up and bring the game that I can,” said Marchand. “I’ve played with Soupy [Gregory Campbell] and Thorty [Shawn Thornton] last year and we played really well together and hopefully we can bring that intensity. We were pretty offensive last year too so hopefully we can bring that as well.”
If that troika can do what they did last year, the Capitals are in for a very annoying Game 5 this afternoon. As for Seguin, giving him a change of linemates is something Julien hopes can spark the kid’s offense as it’s been non-existent in this series. For the Bruins, they’ll need to get bodies flying around Braden Holtby if they’re going to get him out of his rhythm.