BOSTON – You could see it all hit Brad Marchand , 40 seconds into the tribute video, as he watched the moments of his career unfold before him on the scoreboard. It wasn’t the goals, the fights, the Halloween costume-bedecked visits to Boston Children’s Hospital, the celebrations with teammates that crushed him.
It was a tiny Sawyer, his middle child, held up to the glass at TD Garden, her hand outstretched to meet his, wearing her pint-sized Boston Bruins jersey. That was what wrecked Marchand, what undid his valiant efforts to keep it all in, what made his face crumple and his tears flow.
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You could see it all wash over him, a lifetime spent in this building, with these fans, a lifetime of standing by him, of accepting him, of cheering him, of wearing hi