EDMONTON — The puck has yet to drop on the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, and Brad Marchand already feels like the big winner.
In an effort to kill the five-plus hours on the longest playoff charter you’ll find in a North American sports series, an epic poker match was waged among Florida Panthers teammates. And Marchand is still sporting the sly grin of a man raking towers of chips toward his chest.
“Yeah, I mighta cleaned up,” the oldest and newest Panther says. “IRS might be after me after this one.”
More hands will be dealt, of course. And not unlike the Edmonton Oilers, Sam Bennett is already eyeing the rematch.
“We got some long flights ahead of us to get it back,” Bennett warns. “Yeah, that is true (Marchand cashed in) today. But if you ask him about a week ago, he didn’t do so well then.”
-
-
Watch the Stanley Cup Final on Sportsnet
With the Stanley Cup within reach, the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers are set to battle once again for hockey’s ultimate prize. Watch every game of the Final on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
The victories, the defeats: Marchand clings to them all.
Cherishes. Regrets.
Revenge. Inspiration.
And now that the 37-year-old has fallen into a hot hand, jumping midstream from a lottery squad to a championship roster, he’s all in.
Yes, Marchand won a ring in his first full NHL season, back in 2011 with Boston, but he returned to the dance with the Bruins twice (2013, 2019) only to lose in devastating fashion: a blown third-period lead in Game 6 and a Game 7 crusher on home ice, respectively.
While holding court for nearly 20 minutes at media day, it was interesting that Marchand — as wise as he is wicked — not only spoke glowingly of 2011 (“I definitely wasn’t too young to enjoy it”) but voluntarily brought up the pain of 2023, how pebbles of ice time can cascade into waves of remorse.
That pivotal upset series when Marchand’s Presidents’ Trophy–winning, regular-season-record-setting Bruins blew a 3-1 Round 1 lead to the scrappy Cats.
“I keep going back to when we lost to Florida a couple years ago. Like, we never should have lost that series — but we did. I miss a breakaway in Game 5 with a couple seconds left, and it should’ve been over right there. So, that one play, Bob (Sergei Bobrovsky) making a big save, Florida ends up winning. And there’s little moments like that through all kinds of series that create these opportunities for teams,” Marchand says.
“The longer you’re in it, you realize how hard it is to win and how many things need to go right and just how perfect everything needs to line up.”
Funny.
If Connor McDavid appears even more focused on his Cup mission this time around, then maybe his fire source is not so different than Marchand’s.
These elite athletes are like an Oscar-winning director who is driven mad by one lousy critic, but couldn’t tell you who wrote the positive reviews.
“I find that you hold on to your losses more than your wins, to be honest. Like, I remember more about the losses than I do winning the Cup,” Marchand continues.
“They hurt. You think about them more. There’s so many what-if moments that you go back to and you look at things you wanted to change. Maybe it makes it harder, because I’ve been there, and I’ve won, and I know how great a feeling it is. But, yeah, the losses hurt more.”
Which is why, when the season spiraled in Boston and the impending free agent had a say in his spring rental home, Marchand quickly got focused on Florida — divisional rivalry be damned.
“The high-end skill game and the finesse, it gets you here, but it takes a whole different game and level to take you far,” Marchand says. “I knew playing against the Panthers this year that they were the team in the East that was going to make a run.”
A captain and first-line everything in Boston, what Marchand didn’t know is where he’d fit —on the ice and in the dressing room.
“Just hope I could get in the lineup,” he smiles. “I was honestly like: I think I’m playing fourth line again. Back to my roots.”
In addition to chipping in on the second power-play unit, Marchand has bolstered arguably the best third line in hockey alongside young Finns Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. And off the ice, the veteran’s outsized personality has meshed nicely, if nosily, with his former opponents.
Chirps are flying. Trade secrets are being shared. And a new tradition — playfully firing those plastic rats at the Rat King himself after another playoff W — has been born.
“It’s a different situation for myself, just because my family is not around. So, I honestly feel like a young guy again,” Marchand explains. “All I have to do is play hockey, and then, outside of that, just hanging with the guys and have fun and get to know them. So, it’s a different opportunity than what I’m used to.”
Lifted is the weight of captaincy, the stress of work-life balance, and the pressure of being the face of an Original Six franchise. Thriving in more sheltered minutes, Marchand has already piled 14 points through 17 playoff games, while his line has tilted the ice to the tune of plus-11 through three rounds.
Panthers GM Bill Zito believes Marchand’s skill set and competitiveness are as expected. No regrets on spending a first-round draft pick here. But it’s the intangibles that have impressed the executive.
“He’s more special than I could’ve imagined on that front, as a teammate, as a character here,” Zito says. “It’s been frosting on the cake.”
Zito’s dessert still tastes strange to Bruins fans, though.
For years, Marchand was the Spoked B: the high bar of excellence, the loud, rule-bending feistiness, the production exceeding the paycheque.
But when the superstar asked for what he believes will be market value, the Bruins balked. Business interrupted Marchand’s pleasure when this season began.
“It was stressful in a lot of senses, just because some of them were situations I really hadn’t been in before, and I wouldn’t say I dealt with them great,” Marchand concedes.
“The business side of it, I let it frustrate me, and then obviously our team wasn’t having the success we expected. And we were having a hard time getting back on track.
“There were different hurdles that continued to get frustrating and stressful throughout the year. But that’s part of the game, and you’ve got to find ways to deal with it. I wish I had done a better job at times, but something I can learn from.”
In February, during the 4 Nations Face-Off, Marchand probed the minds of Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett. The Panthers raved about the culture in Florida and how welcoming the room was to new additions. Then the three forwards went out and won together, as Canadians.
Gratitude was preached heavily in Marchand’s last few years as a Bruin, and it’s a value that he brought with him in the trade south, a life-altering, last-minute blockbuster that he admits made him “nervous.”
And now, with a shot at hoisting a second Stanley Cup 14 years after his first, Marchand is clinging to that gratitude like pocket aces.
“Just appreciate the moment,” Marchand says.
He’s talking to everyone. He’s talking to himself.
“With the things that went on this year and how I ended up here — just so many things can happen that you don’t expect, and you never know when you’re going to have another opportunity like this. So, I’m just so grateful to be part of a group like this. And even if you take in the finals out of it, just to be part of the group. It’s been an incredible experience, and one that I was little worried about, and didn’t know how I was going to come into the team, if I was going to be able to gel with everyone,” he says.
“So, yeah, I’m extremely grateful for it — and really, really excited about it.”
