The Boston Bruins are about to get a huge boost. Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery has announced that star winger Brad Marchand will make his season debut in Thursday's game against the Detroit Red Wings.
While Marchand is slated to return to the ice, the Bruins forward won't play in back-to-back situations for now. Boston faces the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road on Friday following Thursday's contest.
Marchand had missed the opening seven games of the 2022-23 season as he recovered from offseason double hip surgery. He was originally slated to miss the first two months of the season, but Montgomery confirmed on Wednesday that Marchand is ahead of schedule.
The news of Marchand playing on Thursday was extra shocking because Montgomery even stated 24 hours earlier that he didn't expect Marchand to be able to play against Detroit.
"I'd like to see [Marchand] tomorrow; that'd be five weeks ahead of schedule," Montgomery said on Wednesday. "I don't expect him to play tomorrow, no. He's ahead of schedule. He's going to play before Thanksgiving (Nov. 24). As you can tell, he's starting to look good out there. His timing is starting to come. Whatever the doctors have said, it's hard to push that beyond a certain limit of your recovery time."
Marchand practiced fully on Wednesday in his normal spot on the Bruins' top line alongside Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk. The Bruins star also saw time with the team's top power-play unit during Wednesday's practice.
Even without Marchand in the lineup, the Bruins have gotten off to a 6-1-0 start for the first time since the 1969-70 season and enter Thursday's contest riding a three-game winning streak.
