Huge opportunity for Alexis Lafreniere, other storylines to follow on Friday

Spotlight on Brad Marchand

Brad Marchand was the hero for the Boston Bruins on Wednesday after scoring the game-winner in Overtime, and he now has a nine-game point streak heading into tonight’s game against the New York Rangers.

The elite winger has 13 points (7 G, 6 A) during the current streak, and he is only a few games away from equalling his career-high point streak of 13 games, which featured a godly 28 points (10 G, 18 A) from Oct. 5-Nov. 4, 2019. Basically, Marchand has been a huge factor in Boston starting the 2020-21 season (9-1-2) and winning four straight, and he will be key to the Bruins completing this current series sweep against the Blueshirts tonight.

Marchand is also going to be vital on the power play given that the B’s went 0-for-2 on the man advantage on Wednesday night, with the New York Rangers having now killed 16 straight penalties, which is quite an impressive feat by the way, but Boston just has far too much firepower and they will be looking to the likes of Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak to take advantage on special teams tonight should they be presented with the opportunity.

There is no doubt, though, that through the first month or so of the 2020-21 NHL season, the Boston Bruins have established themselves as one of the best teams in the National Hockey League despite losing some key pieces in the offseason, and a lot of that is down to the continued stellar play of  Brad Marchand who, while he may be an annoying pest at times, has proven just how valuable he is to this franchise with his offensive output and he’s also a lot of fun to watch when he has the puck on his stick, so the Rangers will need to pay extra attention to the winger tonight if they are to avoid losing both games of this series against the B’s.