Boston Bruins star forward Brad Marchand’s recovery is going so well that he should return to action in the next few games, according to head coach Jim Montgomery.
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After going under the knife to treat injuries to both of his hips on May 27, the fiery Nova Scotian was expected to miss regarding six months of action. It’s unclear when he’ll be on the Bruins roster, but he’ll definitely play before American Thanksgiving, Nov. 24.
In the meantime, Marchand found Jake DeBrusk and Patrice Bergeron on the first line in practice on Wednesday. The Bruins host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
“I would like to see [Marchand] Thursday, said Montgomery, according to remarks reproduced and translated by NHL.com. He would advance his deadline by five weeks. I don’t expect him to play on Thursday though. He is recovering faster than expected.”
The Bruins pilot also admitted that he “begged the doctors every day” to allow Marchand to return, and that he did not exclude the possibility that this scenario would materialize in the next two weeks.
For his part, the 34-year-old winger confirmed that he was beginning to find his ease on the ice.
“I would like to speed things up a bit, but it’s not in my hands,” he slipped. So I let the physical trainers and the doctors do their job. I’m getting close to a comeback, that’s for sure. Every time I participate in a full training session with the team, it’s different. You can see that my “timing” is not yet on point, but every day I am making progress and getting closer to the goal.
Despite the absence of their leading scorer and No. 1 defenseman in Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins are off to a great start to the season, posting a 5-1-0 record. This excellent start allowed Marchand to be more patient in his recovery.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. You want to be part of the success of the team, but it makes things easier when the team wins like they are doing right now. If we had a 1-6 record, the story would be completely different. I probably would have tried a return to the game a month ago.
In his career, Marchand has scored 351 goals and 795 points in 874 games.
