Brad Marchand, Leafs killer: The Bruin turned Panther is doing it again

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SUNRISE, Fla. — You can take Brad Marchand out of Boston, but you can’t take him out of the nightmares of Leafs Nation.

Marchand has been toying with and torturing the franchise for more than a decade, and on Friday he saw the Toronto Maple Leafs come within a shot of their biggest victory in a quarter century before snatching it away from them.

In the process, Marchand effectively applied the defibrillator to the Florida Panthers’ season. He kept their hopes alive in this second-round series by capping a long overtime shift where the Leafs got put into the spin cycle. First he swooped across the offensive zone and then he changed the angle of his shot just enough to send the puck safely through traffic and see it bounce off Morgan Rielly and float past Joseph Woll.

“You could tell they were tired,” Marchand said after the 5-4 victory. “They were just kind of sitting back. They’re normally very aggressive and they were collapsed pretty low. In overtime, there’s not a bad shot you can put at the net. Obviously, it was a fortuitous bounce, but that’s what happens when you put pucks at the net.”

BRAD MARCHAND 🫡

His @Energizer overtime winner gives the @FlaPanthers the Game 3 victory! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/lRMM1ph39h

— NHL (@NHL) May 10, 2025

Incredibly, Marchand now has 33 points in 31 career playoff games against Toronto — third-most in history among the franchise’s opponents behind Detroit Red Wings legends Alex Delvecchio (35) and Gordie Howe (53).

He’s turning the clock back to 2013 or 2018 or 2019.

Or even 2024.

The Leafs were on the wrong side of the handshake line with Marchand in each of those springs and will look back upon Game 3 ruefully if it happens again this time. The oldest player in this series has been a puck-hounding menace. He’s ripping along at a 78 percent expected goals mark at even strength that has seen the Panthers outscore the opposition 5-2 during his minutes on the ice.

“He brings so much life to our team,” said teammate Carter Verhaeghe.

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov went so far as to say that he used to “hate” playing against Marchand. The Leafs know that feeling well.

“Now that he’s on our side, it’s just, I don’t want to say relief, but it’s really fun to watch,” Barkov said.

There certainly isn’t any sense of buyer’s remorse over the stunning March 7 trade that brought him to South Florida after 16 seasons with the Bruins. Remember that there was no telling how that might go with Marchand joining a new team for the first time in his NHL career — while recovering from an injury that delayed his Panthers debut by another three weeks.

However, the veteran forward didn’t tip-toe into the dressing room of the defending Stanley Cup champions. He strutted right through the front door and made himself at home.

“His personality is so unique,” general manager Bill Zito said. “He’s himself. He is who he is all the time and for us it’s a perfect fit.”

“He came in guns blazing,” added Evan Rodrigues, who has taken to playfully firing a rubber rat at Marchand on the ice after home victories. “There was no feeling-out period. There was no kind of working his way in. He was here, and he was here to stay, and he knew it. He came in hot.”

There are still occasional reminders about how new this all is, too.

When reporters were let into the Panthers dressing room after Friday’s win, Marchand was still wearing half of his equipment and standing at the front of the room with Barkov.

They were huddled around the white board and Marchand was running through the finer points of an on-ice sequence with enthusiasm. Effectively, he was instructing Barkov where to go in a specific circumstance. Yes, the same Barkov who serves as team captain and is a four-time nominee for the Selke Trophy.

Marchand commands so much respect that he lends experience and brings credibility even while playing alongside teammates who have a chance to reach the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight year.

Should Florida come back from 2-1 down in this series and knock off the Leafs, the conditional second-round pick they sent to Boston for Marchand will upgrade to a 2027 first-rounder. It will have been worth it. He’s produced a team-leading four points and has become a matchup conundrum for Toronto because of the offensive creativity he’s brought to a defensively minded line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

Plus, the Panthers might have found themselves in a dire 0-3 hole were it not for Marchand’s heroics in Game 3.

“He’s a competitor,” said Leafs defenceman Brandon Carlo, a former Bruins teammate of Marchand and close friend. “Once he gets out onto the ice, there’s no really saying what he’s going to do besides compete as hard as he can.”

At one point, that even included licking Leo Komarov during a heated series against the Leafs.

Brad Marchand and Mitch Marner in the handshake line after the Bruins’ Game 7 win in 2024. (Steve Babineau / NHLI via Getty Images)

Marchand has largely kept himself on the right side of the line this time around, although he knocked Woll to the ice in Game 2 and exchanged plenty of words with Scott Laughton afterward. He also got into a jawing match with Max Domi and others on the Toronto bench when Florida fell behind early in Game 3.

Most important of all, he froze the clock at the end of the night with his 14th career game-winning goal in the playoffs — most among active NHL players — and the fifth game-winner he’s potted against the Leafs during his career in the postseason, tied with Jean Beliveau for the most ever.

“It’s a blur,” Marchand said of his fourth career playoff overtime goal. “Honestly, it all happens very quickly and you’re exhausted at that point of the game. It’s one second of a game. It could be anybody.”

In theory, that’s true.

But when it’s the Leafs and it’s the playoffs, it’s usually him.

(Top Photo of Brad Marchand celebrating with Sergei Bobrovsky: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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