The 34-year-old wasted no time getting back into the mix offensively. After digging a loose puck off the wall in the offensive zone, Marchand zipped a feed across the slot to Derek Forbort at the left point where the blue liner fed Charlie Coyle, who was bursting into the zone. Coyle dangled through the middle of the ice and sniped one by Detroit goalie Villie Husso to open the scoring with 6:18 to go in the first period.
"I felt good. It took me a little bit just to get the timing back, and I was rushing a few plays that I think I'd normally hold on to a little bit more - a couple of pucks in my feet that I didn't pick up that I would normally have," Marchand said when asked how he felt about his puck battling.
"You normally have exhibition games to get that out, but it's my first time doing it in the regular season. All in all, it doesn't matter as long as you win. I could have played terrible tonight and I'd still be happy.
"Definitely room for improvement. I didn't have my best game and still things I can improve upon and looking forward to doing that with the group."
Not his best game, but one that still ended with him scoring two goals, the first being a patented Marchand wrister from the left-wing circle on the power play. As he crept close to the Detroit net, he thought about a message that Montgomery delivered to him on the bench earlier in the game, and then ripped a wrister over Husso's glove to open up a 2-0 Boston lead with 8:07 left in the second.
"I've got to give Monty credit, actually. Before the game, he told me to shoot low glove, and I tried to go high glove in the first period, and he kind of came by and nodded at me like, 'Hey, I said low glove.' And sure enough, it worked. Don't worry, he took credit for that," Marchand said with a smile.
Marchand was at it again early in the third when he kicked off a furious flurry of three goals in a span of 1:41 to extend Boston's lead to four. Planted on the doorstep, Marchand collected a David Pastrnak rebound and whacked home his second of the night to put the Bruins up, 3-1, just 2:55 into the third.
"I definitely felt more comfortable [as the game went along]," said Marchand. "It helps, obviously, playing with [Patrice Bergeron] and [Jake DeBrusk] and Pasta towards the later part of the game. Being out there with guys that I have great comfort levels with, they just made me feel comfortable the way they talked to me and allowed me to kind of sit into the game.
"It's kind of how it is. Once the game goes on, you get more mentally into it, and it just comes back to you. It's like riding a bike. When you're winning by four, five goals, it makes it easy too."