Brad Marchand has never been mistaken for the responsible one in a dressing room. For roughly ten seconds in January 2021, the Boston Bruins made him their captain anyway.
The circumstances were real enough. Zdeno Chara had left for free agency at the end of December after 14 seasons wearing the C in Boston, and the team needed a successor. Patrice Bergeron was the obvious answer and had been carrying himself like a captain for the better part of a decade. That didn’t stop the Bruins from having some fun with the announcement first.
Brad Marchand Bruins captain
President Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney gathered the team in the room at Warrior Ice Arena to reveal the decision. Sweeney kept it short.
“I’m not even going to belabor the point. I think I’m just going to ask Marchy to come up and accept the captaincy,” Sweeney said.
He then unfurled a No. 63 Marchand jersey with a large C stitched on the chest. Marchand, Bergeron’s linemate since 2011, played along for about as long as he could manage.
“I’m really looking forward to taking this next step,” Marchand said, his grin visible even through a mask. “But… you know, I think we all know who the real captain is.”
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He then congratulated Bergeron, who stepped up to collect the jersey that had been the plan all along and delivered a considerably more earnest speech.
“It’s not about the letter. It’s about coming together as a team, everyone taking ownership of this locker room,” Bergeron said. “I’m going to try to better myself and keep leading by example and still try to be me and keep learning from all of you guys.”
The giveaway was that the Bruins already had photos of Bergeron wearing the C prepared for the official announcement that same day, meaning the locker room scene existed purely to get the moment on camera.
Marchand did walk away with a letter of his own that day. He was named a permanent alternate captain alongside David Krejci, a role Krejci had held for years.
The joke aged well. Marchand eventually succeeded Bergeron as captain of the Bruins for real, meaning the jersey Sweeney held up as a gag turned out to be a preview.
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