April 22, 2024 | 11:51am ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

MAROON MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN BOSTON

Pat Maroon, forward

BOSTON, MA — Throughout the 2023-24 season, the Boston Bruins celebrated their 100th anniversary. Before each home game, fans were treated to video montages of Bruins teams and players scoring big goals, making big saves, and winning big games.

With Boston being the classic blue-collar city that it is, the videos included the team’s toughest players from years past such as Wayne Cashman, Derek Sanderson, John Wensink, Terry O’Reilly, Stan Jonathan, and Cam Neely, to name a few, engaged in bone-jarring body checks and fights that have been and will always be part of Boston’s lore.

After playing three games in the Black and Gold, add Pat Maroon’s name to that list of players.

Today’s hockey is different from the days of the Big, Bad, Bruins. It is a game based on skill and speed and less brawn. However, teams with that one player who uses his size and strength to send the message that he and his teammates will be hard to play against usually enjoy more wins than losses during the regular season and the playoffs.

These days, no one knows that more than Maroon.

It was no coincidence that he was a member of three consecutive Stanley Cup champions in St. Louis (2019) and Tampa Bay (2020, 2021).

Bruins fans were not very enamored with Maroon’s style of play in 2019. If you remember, Maroon dished out more than one bruising hit against Bruins defensemen and forwards alike during the Blues’ seven-game series win over Boston in the Stanley Cup Final.

These days, things are a little different.

Maroon was traded to Boston from the Minnesota Wild at the NHL Trade Deadline on March 8.

His debut in the Black and Gold was delayed while he rehabilitated from back surgery. The 35-year-old forward hit the ice for his first contest with Boston on April 13 at Pittsburgh where he put one shot on goal on three shot attempts and delivered five hits in 13:16 Time On Ice.

He saw action two days later at Washington and ended the game with one shot and six hits in 15:58 Time On Ice.

After watching those two performances, Maroon’s debut on home ice was highly anticipated by Boston’s fans. Unfortunately for those fans, Maroon was held out of the lineup for the final game of the regular-season vs Ottawa on April 16. With the playoffs in clear view, he was given the night off.

Maroon’s first game as a Bruin in Boston came in Game 1 of their First Round series against arch-rival Toronto Maple Leafs. If you were there early enough to watch the pregame warmups you saw something that may have been – I repeat, may have been – perceived as an attempt to intimidate the Leafs by Maroon.

Since hockey instituted the center ice red line in 1943, it has been understood that the players from each team would not cross that line during pregame warmup. There has been an unwritten rule if you will, that players would not set foot in their opponent’s territory.

At one point during the warmups before Game 1, Maroon repeatedly skated along the center ice red line. One of his feet could be seen crossing over the line Intermittently.

It is not known if Maroon intended to intimidate the Maple Leafs or if he was just getting ready for the game. What is known is that he made his presence felt early when he sent Leafs’ defenseman Timothy Liljegren almost completely over the boards into the Boston bench with a clean, hard hit. On his next two shifts, he rattled the boards by stepping into Toronto players.

Maroon’s hit on Liljegren elicited a big reaction from the crowd and, according to Bruins forward Jakub Lauko, the Bruins themselves.

“When Pat made the hit, the mood on the bench and everything kind of rose up,” Lauko said. “It was a great moment. That’s why Pat’s here. He’s great at what he does. He’s hitting people hard and he’s a really good player in these scenarios.”

Those shifts, as expected, won the hearts of Bruins fans.

Maroon’s penchant for physical hockey resulted in Boston’s first goal as he won a puck battle along the boards in the Bruins zone before he sent a pass to Jesper Boqvist who carried the disc up ice and fed John Beecher a cross-ice pass during a two-on-one rush. Beecher then scored giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Boston won the game 5-1 taking a 1-0 series lead. Maroon finished the night with one assist and six hits in 11:28 Time On Ice.

In playoff hockey, every club’s best players are relied upon to make plays that lead to goals or to be the players who score those goals but each team also needs players who know their roles and take care of the details.

“He (Maroon) has tons of experience which we can draw from,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said after the Game 1 win, “He’s very comfortable talking in any situation. He understands the importance of the little plays in the game that can make a difference.”

Maroon’s history of being that role player has paid off in the form of three Stanley Cup rings. If he can continue to play his style of hockey on a nightly basis, it will give Boston a different look. Not only will it be a team built on speed, skill, and a sound defensive structure, but it will also have a physical dimension that could make it a team that will be very hard to play against.