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Marchand, who was told by the league to stop
licking the faces of his opponents, told reporters Wednesday
that he wants to clean up his act in order to avoid embarrassing
the team.
"The biggest thing for me is taking a pretty hard look in the
mirror and realize that some of the things I'm doing have much
bigger consequences," Marchand said. "The last thing I ever want
to do is bring embarrassment to my teammates and the
organization like I did.
"I have to be a lot better. I know I have said that in the past,
but I think that's got to be the thing that I really work on the
most."
Marchand first licked Leo Komarov of the Toronto Maple Leafs
during the first round of the playoffs, then repeated the act on
the Tampa Bay Lightning's Ryan Callahan during the second round.
The Lightning were none too happy with the gesture, with coach
Jon Cooper saying, "There is absolutely no place in our game for
that."
"Some things I've done clearly need some fixing," said Marchand.
"So I think that's going to be the biggest thing that I take
away from what's happened the last few days -- to actually take
a look and really understand these things have much bigger
consequences.
"When you play a certain way with no consequences for 25 years,
it's hard to flip a switch and have it all be gone. Maybe I
haven't paid enough attention to it, because I thought I could
get away with it because I was being a good player. If I wasn't
having the years that I was having, would I be in the league? I
don't know. Would the Bruins put up with it? Probably not."
Marchand, who turns 30 on Friday, led the Bruins with 85 points
(34 goals, 51 assists) during the regular season. He was second
on the team with 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in the
playoffs.
Marchand noted he must improve his behavior if he's ever going
to grow into a leader on the team like Patrice Bergeron or
captain Zdeno Chara.
"That's something I've wanted to work on for the last few years,
to move more into that role," he said. "I gotta figure some out
before that's really going to happen. To get to that next level.
I gotta get rid of that stuff."
Chara, for one, believes Marchand will take the steps needed to
get there.
"He realizes he needs to get better," said Chara. "And he will.
I am sure that he is going to have some thoughts about some of
this stuff ... and he will be better."
--Field Level Media
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