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Kalman: Repaired Elbow Makes Bruins' Marchand Bigger Offensive Threat

WILMINGTON (CBS) – Bruins forward Brad Marchand seemingly set the bar for how many goals he could score in a season when he found the back of the net 24 times last season, one year removed from scoring 25.

But there might be room for improvement now that Marchand has corrected an injury he battled through all of last season by having surgery this summer to repair torn tendons in his right elbow. Marchand suffered the injury late in the regular season in 2013-14.

Without using the injury as an excuse for his inconsistent 2014-15 season Tuesday, Marchand acknowledged that he was being held back.

"Yeah, it was OK. Like I said, it wasn't as bad throughout the year as it was before the [2014] playoffs. But it definitely still bothered me at times," Marchand said after a captains' practice at Ristuccia Arena. "It was more of a nuisance. Some days I wouldn't be able to work on things and it was frustrating."

The Bruins' season was frustrating for everyone, as they missed the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. Marchand wasn't able to help Boston down the stretch the way he wanted and he went goal-less in 15 straight games before scoring in the Bruins' last two regular season games. It was too little too late for Boston, which was eliminated from postseason contention before they completed their season finale against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

General manager Peter Chiarelli was replaced by his former assistant Don Sweeney and the new GM set about remaking the roster by importing Matt Beleskey and Jimmy Hayes and jettisoning Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. Marchand admitted that he and many other teammates were nervous both about their own status and what the roster would look like after such a disappointing season. Marchand, who's entering the third year of a four-year contract that charges the Bruins $4.5 million per season against the NHL salary cap, stayed put. He'll try to be part of the solution to the Bruins' problems from a year ago.

"I think that when there's big changes like that and new coaches or GMs, when teams make changes, it's worrying for guys," Marchand said. "You don't know what approach you're going to take to switch things up. And you saw, we lose some good players and brought in some good players. And guys that you thought could be here for a long time moved on. So you never, in this game, you're never safe and especially when you don't have a good year. Anything could happen. So I think we were definitely all worried going into the summer. But everyone's fortunate to be here and looking forward to the season."

Beleskey and Hayes were imported to boost the offense. A healthy David Krejci should also benefit Boston's scoring. But now we know that Marchand wasn't 100 percent for quite some time. He worked with the trainers to get himself ready during the 2014 playoffs and throughout last season. He went scoreless in 12 postseason games in 2014 and had a roller-coaster regular season last year.

"There were days where I couldn't even hold my stick. It was always tough to shoot," Marchand said. "There'd be times throughout the year where it was good. But when it was bad it was tough to even ... like I wasn't shooting in practice and stuff like that. So it definitely affected my game a bit. So it was good to get it done."

Marchand came four goals shy of his career high of 28, set in 2011-12. With a healthy right wing, the left wing might be able to be even better at even strength and earn some power-play time. That could boost his goal total past 30 and make the Bruins an even more formidable foe at the offensive end, while taking some of the heat off of the newcomers.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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