(Photo Credit: Twitter//@hockeyfights)

By: Jack McCarthy  |  Follow Me On Twitter @73johnnymac
The Boston Bruins defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in game six of their Eastern Conference second-round series on Monday night, punching their ticket to a meeting with the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ Eastern Conference Final.
Winning a hard fought playoff series on the road, in a hostile building is usually something that would have the victors fired up and wanting to express their joy and satisfaction to the entire world, or at least those that want to listen.  But that clearly was not the case for Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand as he took a completely different approach in a series of post-game interviews.
The first indication that something might have been up with Marchand took place in the moments following the traditional handshake between the two teams.  Marchand skated to the Bruins bench and into a post-series interview with Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet’s rinkside reporter, Kyle Bukauskas.

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Marchand offered Bukauskas a total of ten words in response to his three questions, or just 3.33 words per question, not that the NHL tracks this in its Advanced Stats Metrics.
To say the least, that interview didn’t exactly go as expected, Bukauskas closing with “Well that was worth it, Jim.”  The immediate reaction of Bruins Twitter was to try to determine why the frosty treatment from Marchand to Bukauskas.  It didn’t take long for the astute observers to hone in on an interview between the two during the pre-game warm-up of game two.

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Marchand was not finished just yet, however.  Speaking to reporters in the Bruins locker room post game, he proceeded to continue with the short answers, fielding 19 questions in total and offering a grand total of 39 words in response.  That equates to an impressive 2.05 words in response per question!

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Brad Marchand is the type of player who polarizes fans across the league with his antics.  Marchand, it can be argued, entered this series with his sneaky, back of the head punch on Columbus’ Scott Harrington late in game three.  At the time, the Bruins were about to fall 2-1 down in the series, and Marchand had not recorded a point in four games, something that did not occur at all in the regular season.  On the back of that incident, Marchand responded with four points in the next two games as the Bruins retook the series lead, a lead they would not relinquish as they eliminated the Blue Jackets in six games.

Brad Marchand has demonstrated throughout his career that he plays his best hockey when playing on the edge.  If playing coy with the press in post-game interviews satisfies his need to get people angry and motivates him to bring his A-game as the Bruins enter the upcoming Eastern Conference Final, Bruins fans should be quite ok with that.  After all, we don’t really need the long-winded, cliché ridden, stock standard responses we normally hear…”gotta get pucks deep” anyone?