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.
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 his No. 63, of watching his glor