Brad Marchand fuels Leafs speculation after discussing how close he came to signing in Toronto
Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Brad Marchand faces the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night and decided to troll Leafs fans by teasing his free agency, and adding a couple shots towards the team.
If you were to narrow it down to one player who is the absolute thorn in the side of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's Brad Marchand. Since his time in Boston he's terrorized the team not only in the regular season, but time and time again in the playoffs.
That hasn't changed as he's moved on to Florida and still being the same pesky presence we have grown to dislike albeit respect.
With him facing the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, he wasn't shy about taking another pot shot at the team and gave fans a little bit of a tease as to what potentially could have been.
Brad Marchand trolls Maple Leafs fans and players
Marchand told reporters after practice on Tuesday that his free agency decision was between Florida and Toronto, with him unsure if Florida could retain him but once the money was there; he was dead set on coming back:
Marchand then decided to make sure to take a shot at Auston Matthews after being asked about his record-setting performance. While he gave the captain his flowers, he also wondered if the next time he makes history it'll be with Toronto:
Admitting he was stirring the pot, that's just typical Marchand behavior and we should pretty much be used to it by now.
But Marchand wasn't done there, he decided to stir the pot even more and make sure that if Leafs Nation didn't despise him before; they will now:
It's unfortunate the fans ran Marner out of town. I mean that's a huge impact on their group. He's a point per game player, that hurts.
While he isn't wrong in the sense that losing Marner is impactful, it's more so the fact that he is blaming the fans for running him out. The other stars didn't seem to get the same vitriol as Marner, and it felt like things were being blown out of proportion with how bad it really was.
Toronto can't get caught up in Marchand's mind games
But leave it Marchand to make sure that he does everything he can to play mind games with the Maple Leafs, and he's hoping it'll lead to success for the Panthers on Tuesday night.
Granted, Marchand is doing all he can for Florida as he leads the team with 46 points and has helped carry the team out of the basement of the Atlantic and into a more favourable spot.
Regardless of the mind games and how well Marchand has performed even so deep into his career, the Maple Leafs are going to need to make sure that they do whatever it takes to neutralize their bitter enemy.
If not, then expect Marchand to be even more vocal the next time these two teams meet.