Brad Marchand Played All Of Last Season With Elbow Tears, Had Surgery In Offseason
BOSTON (CBS) -- Brad Marchand was just one of many disappointments for the Bruins in the failed 2014-15 campaign. He did lead the team with 24 goals, but totaled only 42 points and went on a 15-game goal-less drought down the stretch.
But it's now known that Marchand played the entire 2014-15 season, and some of 2013-14, with tendon tears in his right elbow. At the Bruins' practice facility at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, he revealed to Matt Kalman on NHL.com that he had surgery to repair multiple tears in the offseason.
The injury first occurred before the 2014 playoffs, according to Marchand. After spending the first six weeks after the surgery in a cast and a split for another month, he is back to rebuilding his upper-body strength and expects to be at 100 percent in time for the start of training camp on Sep. 17. Ironically, the lack of a Bruins playoff run helped his recovery process.
"With a long summer like that you want to try to train to get in shape and I was rehabbing for the first couple months," he said. "But [the elbow is] feeling good now. I'm very happy I got it done and hopefully it'll come back stronger than before."
Talking about an injury can sound like excuse-making, but Marchand isn't doing that. He soldiered on even as he looked visibly uncomfortable at times. Although a tendon tear can legitimately slow down your production, Marchand played through it and was still relatively productive, despite his dropoff at the end of the season:
"There were days where I couldn't even hold my stick...It was always tough to shoot. 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."
If Marchand really comes back at 100 percent next season, he won't have an excuse for not continuing to produce as one of the Bruins' top scorers, and it appears the team will need his production more than ever. Not that he had an excuse before.
Matt Dolloff is a digital producer for CBSBostonSports.com and expert on injuries since spraining a finger in a pickup football game. Read more from Matt here and follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff.
