Ah, Damn, Brad Marchand Actually Did A Frickin' Cool Thing

It’s easy to lose sight of this fact amid the rabbit punches and cup checks and compulsive licking and stick-breaking and general dickishness, but veteran Bruins winger Brad Marchand is really freaking good at hockey. He showed that in part by getting a couple of assists in Boston’s afternoon win against Anaheim, bringing him up to nine points in six games. But more memorably, Marchand owned the young Duck Maxime Comtois in the second period with a move that combined his trademark aggression and ingenuity with some world-class reflexes. And unlike most of the times when Brad Marchand makes you take notice, this is actually pretty dang fun to watch.

The sequence starts with Marchand forechecking on the penalty kill and, right in front of his own bench, he gives the rookie Comtois a rough shove. Comtois is peeved, as people tend to be when Brad Marchand gets in their face. But as he goes for retaliation, Marchand just bullet-times him, ducking below his arm to miss the payback before calmly stepping off the ice. The slow-mo is up top and cooler, but here’s a reminder that this all happens in less than two seconds:

He still sucks, though.