Brad Marchand's 2015-16 was no fluke. Far from it.
The Boston Bruins forward had a huge night Monday, torching the Vancouver Canucks for four points, including a third period hat trick, in an important 6-3 win.
(If you haven't seen his second goal, fix that now, because No. 63 stripped Henrik Sedin of the puck, put it through Alex Edler's legs in order to get around the lanky defender, and then went backhand off the post past Ryan Miller for what stood as the game-winning goal. It was bonkers.)
Also bonkers: Marchand is now tied with Sidney Crosby for the league lead in goals with 35, and also tied with Crosby for the second-most points in the NHL, with 74. Connor McDavid's one up on the pair, with 75 points. (It must be noted that Crosby's played six fewer games than McDavid and seven fewer than Marchand.)
Watch @Bmarch63's second career hat trick 🎩🎩🎩 pic.twitter.com/pLzm18bsnj
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 14, 2017
After a career-high 37 goals and 61 points last season, Marchand's taken his game to another level. His 74 points and counting are already a career best, and he will easily hit 40-plus goals at this pace. At 28 years old, he's become truly elite.
Seriously, it's silly. Marchand has seven goals in six games in March, and an absurd 25 goals in his last 28 games, dating back to Jan. 7.
No one's been better since the calendar flipped to 2017. Here are the top 10 scorers since Jan. 1, and McDavid and Crosby:
| Rank | Player | GP | G | A | P | GWG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marchand | 30 | 25 | 18 | 43 | 4 |
| 2 | Nicklas Backstrom | 33 | 12 | 26 | 38 | 2 |
| 3 | Patrick Kane | 29 | 19 | 17 | 36 | 2 |
| 4 | Mark Scheifele | 31 | 13 | 23 | 36 | 1 |
| 5 | Jack Eichel | 33 | 13 | 22 | 35 | 1 |
| 6 | Brent Burns | 31 | 12 | 23 | 35 | 2 |
| 7 | Nikita Kucherov | 30 | 18 | 16 | 34 | 2 |
| 8 | Mikael Granlund | 31 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 1 |
| 9 | Patrice Bergeron | 30 | 10 | 24 | 34 | 3 |
| 10 | David Pastrnak | 30 | 9 | 25 | 34 | 3 |
| 12 | McDavid | 30 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 2 |
| 13 | Crosby | 30 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 2 |
Some takeaways:
- Not only has Marchand outproduced his peers, he's scoring massive goals for his team. Not in the table are his three shorthanded goals and five shorthanded points in the new year.
- His linemates Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak are producing exceptionally, as well. There's no way the trio will let the Bruins miss the playoffs.
- How weird is it that Crosby and McDavid have the same exact totals? Very, we'd say.
Marchand's shooting an unsustainable 28.1 percent in the new year, and 17.5 percent on the season, the highest mark of his career in a non-lockout campaign. Yeah, there's some luck involved, but it's more than that. He's very, very good. He's creating some of that luck.
With a handful of games and less than a month left in the season, not only are the playoff races going to be something to watch the rest of the way, so are the scoring ones.
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