As any other Bruins die hard, I am thrilled at the sight of their 7-3-0 start. (14 points, 3rd in Atlantic)  Several players have preformed up and beyond the call of duty such as, Reilley Smith, Chris Kelly, and Jarome Iginla.  But one player’s consistently horrid play keeps the Bruins in 3rd rather than 1st.  His name?  Brad Marchand.  After a stellar rookie and sophomore season, which saw him collect 49 goals and 47 assists combined, the last two seasons (So Far) he has only amassed 19 goals and 19 assists, with a rating of -1.  So, what’s going on?

I have several theories on why Marchand’s production has gone down this drastically.  One of which being that he’s too comfortable, meaning that he will not feel like actually showing up until the end of his current 5 million dollar contract.  Lets pray that is not the case, as it was with Tyler Seguin.

Whatever the case may be for his lack of production, Marchand needs to find his game again and fast.  To put it into perspective, he hasn’t even been Brad Marchand the pest, let alone the goal scorer.  That right there is what worries me.  He hasn’t been playing like himself at all.  Which brings me to my next theory, and this one scares my the most.  I know for a fact that the department of player safety has a hand in this.  Ever since Marchand “Clipped” Sami Salo of the Canucks and got slapped with a 5 game suspension in January of 2012, he hasn’t been the same player.  So, it is reasonable to assume that Brendan Shanahan and company told him that he could not play his style of game anymore, and if Brad Marchand isn’t a pest, he’s a non factor.  If he can’t be a pest, he can’t be a goal scorer.

Wherever we want to point the finger at, the problem still will exist until rectified.  So if you’re Claude Julian, how do you fix it?  In my opinion, you bench him and you call up Ryan Spooner from Providence to be on the 3rd line with Chris Kelly and Jordon Caron.  That may seem a little extreme, but think about it: You don’t have one of your goal scorers in Loui Eriksson, and Brad Marchand who is supposed to be one of your leaders in that department is giving you nothing every night, so it’s time to bring in the kid.  Lets not forget, Ryan Spooner surprised many with his stellar training camp and a lot of people  thought that he would make the team instead of Riley Smith.  At this point, it seems smarter to inject some youth into your lineup who will give you 100% every night, instead of a guy who has given absolutely nothing thus far.