Good to know: Bruins vs. Red Wings

BOSTON – Brad Marchand admitted it was hard to keep a straight face.

When the winger met the media on Wednesday afternoon, he did little to indicate his return was imminent.

“Yeah, I did,” Marchand, who will make his season debut against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, said with a grin when asked if he’d had a hard time keeping the information close to his chest.

“It was hard. Obviously folks [the media] do your job and try to get the information out there. The last thing I wanted to do [Wednesday] I said I will play and then I have to retire today.”

The truth, Marchand explained, is that date has been circled on the calendar for months. After undergoing a double hip arthroscopy and labrum repair in late May, he was originally told he could target Thanksgiving as the return date.

However, that did not suit the 34-year-old. He wanted to be back much sooner, so he consulted with the Bruins’ medical staff and devised an accelerated plan that would get him into game action about a month ahead of his original schedule.

After five months of grueling rehab, Marchand responded well and came out the other side with more feeling in his legs than he had in years.

“As soon as it became clear that I was going to have surgery, they immediately told me it would be at the end of November. I said, ‘It won’t be the end of November,’ Marchand said with a smile. “We sat down and talked and they knew where my head was and what I was hoping to do. They said, ‘All right, let’s see what we can do.’ But of course we’re dealing with rehab and we have to make sure she’s healing properly.” They did what they could to put together a game plan that allowed them to speed it up a bit, but again in a safe way and So we kind of kept it a secret because it could have changed every day depending on how I was feeling.

“There were days when I tried to do a little more, but they did[saying], ‘Just follow the program.; It was good. It was great to have an end date in sight before we would come back. It feels like you could have accomplished something. Again, it’s difficult to sit outside. But it definitely made it easier for the guys to win. I have to thank them for that.”

Video: Marchand updates media ahead of BOS vs DET

Coach Jim Montgomery, who confirmed Marchand would be back in the lineup in his familiar spot alongside Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBruskadmitted to being very keen to coach a player of Marchand’s abilities.

“I know myself as a coach, I look forward to coaching him and seeing the energy and work ethic he will bring to the Bruins tonight,” said Montgomery.

Boston’s bench chief also reiterated that the team’s doctors and medical staff, including player rehabilitation manager Scott Waugh, are “extremely pleased” with Marchand’s progress and his fitness to be back on the lineup Thursday night.

“All the time we have our own internal schedules and they are ahead of where they have been because of the amazing work our medical staff did and you have to give Marchy a lot of credit for how hard he pushed his rehab,” Montgomery said. “Everyone is comfortable, the doctors are comfortable, Scotty Waugh, who has done an excellent job leading his rehab, is very comfortable.

“We just ticked all the boxes [and] all boxes were ticked. This was the earliest time everyone has felt comfortable — except for Brad Marchand. He wanted to play earlier. But we’re really confident that everything will go well for him as a player.”

However, the Bruins will still be wary of Marchand, who will not travel to Columbus for the second end of Boston’s back-to-back on Friday night. The plan will give Marchand four days to recover and prepare for the first game of the B road trip next Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.

“He won’t play in Columbus because we don’t want him to travel,” Montgomery said. “We’re not going to play him back-to-back. We will allow him to recover and we also have a favorable schedule for him to recover if he hasn’t played for four days.”

Montgomery added that he aims to keep Marchand about 16 to 17 minutes of ice time against the Red Wings while also being flexible depending on how the game plays out.

“I think it’s going to be more the flow of the game,” Montgomery said. “Ideally I want to keep him at 16-17 minutes. Having all four lines running makes it easy. That’s just the flow of the game. There’s no limit to how many minutes he can play, it’s just his hockey condition.” Level will be the biggest factor.”

Marchand conceded his game will likely have some rust that he needs to work on early on.

“It’s tough because it’s a regular season game, it’s clearly not an exhibition,” Marchand said. “Usually you have three or four of these to prepare for the season you’re going into and you feel it and make sure you’re where you want to be, it’s okay to make some mistakes.

“But that’s not the case tonight. It’s about making sure that you go in and I’m not a liability out there and not enforcing the boys’ will. You roll and feel good. The main thing is to keep it simple and keep short shifts, don’t try to do too much or be too fancy.”

Video: Montgomery shares his thoughts ahead of BOS vs. DET

Wait, there’s more

• With Marchand’s return, Paul Zacha falls to the third row and switches to play on the right wing Trento Frederic and Charlie Coylewhile CraigSmith will encounter the right wing of the fourth line. AJ Greer, meanwhile will be a healthy scratch. “It’s not like Greer is the automatic fall guy. I spoke to him about it,” Montgomery said. “It’s about what happened in the last game, how the guys train and what we think is the best matchup given who we’re playing against.”
• Jeremy Swayman will start in the gate on Thursday evening. The goalkeeper has not played in Ottawa since October 18.
• Mike Reilly will sit out as a healthy scratch Jakub Zboril again and again in the lineup next to Brandon Carlo.
• The Red Wings (3-1-2) come to town fresh on Tuesday night after their first regular loss of the season, a 6-2 setback in New Jersey. Dominik Kubalik leads the Red Wings with 10 points in six games and is level on points with Dylan Larkin and David Perron for the four-goal lead.

The expected line-up for Thursday

FORWARD

Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Jake DeBrusk

Taylor Hall – David Krejci – David Pastrnak

Trent Frederic – Charlie Coyle – Pavel Zacha

Nick Foligno – Thomas Nasek -CraigSmith

DEFENDER

Hampus Lindholm – Matt Grzelcyk

Derek Forbort – Connor Clifton

Jakub ZborilBrandon Carlo

GOALKEEPER

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

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