Marchand to savor trip to Cup final, knowing it isn't guaranteed again

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Brad Marchand won the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins when he was 23. He and the Bruins played for it again when he was 25 and 31. He wondered if he would ever return to the title round.

At 37 — and with the Florida Panthers — he's gotten there.

And this time, Marchand is making sure he savors the chance.

Over 1,274 games in his career, including playoffs, there are some memories that escape Marchand now. There are some moments that he acknowledges taking for granted, moments where he didn't use an extra second or two to appreciate being part of. That won't happen now, he insists, since Marchand knows he's much closer to the end of his career than the beginning.

“It's more like enjoying each day like, having fun when you come to the rink," Marchand said. "It can be stressful when you start overthinking things, start looking ahead or the pressure sometimes you put on yourself. This time around, I’m coming to the rink every day and just having fun and trying to live in the moment. You know, not taking anything too seriously.”

Except the hockey, that is.

Marchand is incredibly serious about the task at hand — which resumes Wednesday night when Marchand and the Panthers open the Stanley Cup Final at Edmonton. It's a rematch of last season's Panthers-Oilers series, one that Florida won in seven games. It wasn't difficult to envision a rematch when that series ended. But there's probably nobody on the planet who would have thought the rematch would include the former Boston captain playing for Florida.

“This is special,” Marchand said. “You don't get a lot of opportunities to be part of something like this.”

The Panthers are 8-2 in the playoffs when Marchand gets a point, 4-3 when he doesn't. They're 9-1 when he logs at least 15 1/2 minutes of ice time in the playoffs, 3-4 when he doesn't. It's clear: At his age, he still impacts winning with his hands and his voice.

“Guys that are vocal and intense sometimes will get up and down your bench screaming at your bench, right? They just get so wired in the game and he never does that. It’s always positive," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s always, ‘Stay in there, hang in there.’ ... It’s bordering on legendary status at this point. He’s pumping their tires and he’s just, every day, excited. It’s his personality.”

There is a very clear silly side as well.

Marchand made a trip to Dairy Queen on an off day with teammates essentially become a three-day story by saying he had one of their desserts between periods of a game against Carolina. (He didn't, the snack was honey, not a Blizzard.) He has been chirping teammates from the day he arrived in Florida. He embraces how teammates shoot the toy rats — a Panthers tradition that goes back to 1996 — at him after games, even calling it a family reunion once in a subtle nod to his “rat” nickname.

He keeps it light, until it's time not to. If there's a scrum on the ice, he'll be involved. If a teammate needs backup, he'll be there. A chance at the Cup might not come again, and Marchand — who came to Florida at the trade deadline in a stunner of a move — is vowing that this opportunity won't be wasted.

“I may never get back this late in playoffs ever again in my career," Marchand said. “To be one of the last teams standing and being part of a great group of guys, these are memories that I want to remember and enjoy. I don’t remember some of the series that I played and I know that there’s moments that I missed out on or didn’t really appreciate because I was worried about other things or stressing about other things. I'm not going to do that to myself this time around.”

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl