Bruins captain Brad Marchand said part of the playoffs is trying to hurt players on the other team. While we can debate where to draw the line, he's not wrong, says Adam Proteau.

Say what you will about Boston Bruins star winger Brad Marchand – he’s about as pleasant on the ice as a full-body rash, but he’s about as honest as they get.

That much was apparent when Marchand spoke this week about physicality in hockey – particularly in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“People don’t want to say it, but part of (the) playoffs is trying to hurt every player on the other team,” Marchand told reporters. “The more guys you take out, the more advantage your team has. People don’t say that, but that’s just a fact of the game.”

Marchand definitely said the quiet part out loud, but the overarching question is, “Is he telling the truth?” And the answer to that is a hearty ‘Yes, yes he is.’ 

We can debate where the line in the sand should be regarding physical hockey and the place for intimidation in the sport, but to argue that it’s not part of the deal would be disingenuous. So long as there’s body contact in the game, there will be players who attempt to launch themselves into opponents to dissuade them from getting to prime real estate on the ice. The NHL is not the only professional sports league in which athletes are out to punish each other in this way.

The NFL, for instance, is like the NHL in that regard. With every snap of the football, NFLers are looking to lay the smackdown on the other team. Collisions come with the territory, and half the battle is just staying in the battle. 

In an ideal world, you’d want skill to be the sole decider of hockey games, but there’s no question that a mitigating factor in the final result is the price you pay with your body for going where less-committed players are unwilling to go.

During the NHL’s regular season, it’s far easier to play a finesse-heavy game and avoid being hammered night in and night out. But once the stakes rise every spring, the focus and philosophy change, and games become a war of attrition. 

This is why roster depth is such a crucial component of Cup-winning teams. Coaches and management go into every post-season fully cognizant that not every player who starts the playoffs will be active in the third and fourth rounds. This is why every team that’s eliminated eventually reveals the short- and long-term damage suffered by its players.

Such is life in hockey’s top league. It explains why someone like Marchand’s teammate, defenseman Charlie McAvoy, looked like a mixed martial arts fighter on the losing end of the ledger. It’s certainly not aesthetically pleasing, and we can talk all we want about the sportsmanship that takes a back seat in the playoffs, but we can’t avoid the reality of the situation.

Marchand has been accused of many things during his career, but give him some credit for not pretending there’s an inherent altruism at play in the playoffs. There isn’t. To succeed in high-stakes hockey is to take on risk, if not gleefully, then at least willingly. 

If you want to know why teams that enjoy two or three years of deep post-season runs sooner or later run out of gas in subsequent years, it’s because the toll that’s taken on them mounts and mounts and spares neither superstar nor worker bee. The accumulation of bodily harm is expected and demanded, and those who don’t want to take part in heavy hitting and sacrifice themselves for the cause eventually stick out like sore thumbs.

Ultimately, skill decides which teams will win a Cup and which teams will fall by the wayside. But Marchand is absolutely right when he notes that he and his fellow NHLers are out there trying to exact a painfully high price from the other side. And that is something that isn’t about to change.