The Florida Panthers have accomplished several monumental feats. They’ve made three straight cup finals, are back-to-back champions, and found a way to keep the band together for the foreseeable future with team-friendly contracts. They’ve done something even more noteworthy than all of that. Their most impressive accomplishment of it all might just be making Brad Marchand likeable.
When he was with the Boston Bruins, Marchand was the player the other 31 (or 30, or 29, depending on expansion) fan bases loved to hate. His skill was undeniable. His reputation for being a physical pest made him the most wanted man on a pair of ice skates. He would find way to beat you, both physically and on the score sheet, with an unending creativity to get under his opponents skin. Remember when the NHL had to issue a statement that you can’t lick players? That will forever be a part of Marchand lore.
To Marchand’s credit, he always leaned into his unpopularity to the enjoyment of fans. While being booed at the 2018 NHL All-Star Game, he waved to his haters who were loudly booing at the crowd. In that year’s skill competition, he posed and smiled with a group of fans holding an “exterminate the rat” sign at a safe distance behind the glass. Marchand knew those same fans would root for him if he were on their team, and even if fans didn’t want to admit it, they knew that as well.
With the Bruins entering NHL draft lottery territory for the first time in recent memory last offseason, Marchand was shipped off to the Panthers. Since then he’s won another cup, signed an extension and become a South Florida fan favorite. Through it all fans that once hated the Canadian have started to grow benevolent at worst or appreciative at best for one of the game’s elder statesmen.
Part of it might be the change in locale. The Bruins have been around forever so there’s a good chance your choice of team has had a reason to hate them. Even if it’s been fifty years, have they really grown out the “Big Bad Bruins” reputation they earned during the Bobby Orr days?
The fact they were perennial contenders since 2010 made it even worse. That was before Marchand even gave you a reason to like him you knew he was on the "winning" side. Don't forget there was always pressure to win in Boston. It was in a “no-nonsense” fashion. Until a cup was won and there a parade with the duck boats no one in New England wanted to hear about his post-game Blizzards.
Florida is different. The untraditional hockey market allowed the funnier personalities aspects, such as his Dairy Queen addiction, to shine through and make him relatable. Marchand fully embraced the fun Panthers culture. Those rat jokes Marchand himself even embraced have come full circle since he’s on a team whose secondary mascot is, well, a rat. Marchand playfully let teammates shoot the plastic rats thrown on the ice during the Panthers playoff run at him as he achieved unofficial “unc” status among the young and immensely talented Panthers core.
In some ways Marchand’s personality laundering reminds us of fellow Boston turned Florida man athlete Tom Brady. Brady might have lacked the “instigator” status Marchand had, but Brady was far from the favorite player of footballs fans during the dynasty years with the New England Patriots. After signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his subsequent retirement Brady has emerged in a more fun loving vibe appearing in commercials, having a social media presence, television appearances, etc. Interestingly both Marchand and Brady added additional championships to their legendary careers during their respective first tries as a Floridian.
Imagine telling yourself five years ago that you’d be rooting for a team with Brad Marchand in the twilight of his career as he eats ice cream and added another Stanley Cup ring to his collection? Imagine telling yourself five years ago you don’t dread the possible reality of him adding a third? Then again, imagine telling yourself five years ago that the Bruins legend would be shipped off to South Florida.