Tuesday’s road game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena will be significant for Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand.
It’s only his second game of the season after recovering from offseason surgery to repair cartilage on each of his hips. He was expected to take six months to heal but Marchand was able to return in just under five months.
After a spectacular season debut during a 5-1 home win against the Detroit Red Wings in which he netted two goals and an assist, Marchand was a healthy scratch the next day — as a precaution — for a 4-2 road win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
So Tuesday’s contest will be his first road game of the season. And it comes against one of the NHL’s more prominent teams in the Penguins.
“These are the games you like to play,” Marchand said. “You want to play the high-compete games where everyone is really getting into it and you’re testing your team against the other teams in the league.”
It will also be Marchand’s first game against Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry.
The last time the two crossed paths, Marchand wound up with a six-game suspension.
During the late stages of a 4-2 road win for the Penguins at Boston’s TD Garden on Feb. 8, Marchand punched Jarry in the head then swiped his stick at the goaltender in retaliation for Jarry allegedly mocking him after a save.
One day later, the NHL suspended Marchand.
A subsequent appeal failed and Marchand remained suspended for six games.
The Penguins and Bruins played two more times last season in mid-April. But by that point, Jarry was sidelined with a right foot injury.
Following his team’s morning skate at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday, Marchand was asked if facing Jarry for the first time since the attack was on his mind.
“No,” Marchand said. “It was a reaction to a situation. I don’t think about him or the situation. It just is what it is. I got an extremely heavy punishment for a very soft hit. If anything, he got the last laugh. It’s definitely not something I think about it. It is what it is.”
Tuesday’s game is slated to begin at 8:10 p.m.
