DISCLAIMER: The ‘top stories’ are simply ranked based on how much traffic they garnered for our site over the past calendar year. This is not an opinionated Top 10.
Brad Marchand’s day job is to play hockey in the NHL. His second job is to torment the Toronto Maple Leafs. And his third job is to stand up for them, even after beating them.
Marchand has been a Leaf-killer for as long as one can remember. He’s beaten them in the playoffs four times as a member of the Boston Bruins and once as a Florida Panther, which was the most recent edition. And yet, he’ll always be the first one to suggest they didn’t deserve to lose, or to say the media is too tough on them. It’s a weird dynamic that leaves you wondering if Marchand is being genuine or if he’s just basking in the joy of knowing he owns a franchise. Probably a little bit of both.
At any rate, one of our top stories from 2025 involved one of these efforts by Marchand to defend a longtime rival of his. Below is an excerpt from the article of what he said when asked about their performance in the playoffs after defeating them in the second round.
“I think if you look at the heat this team catches, it’s actually really unfortunate,” Marchand said. “They’ve been working at building something really big here for awhile, and they were a different brand of hockey this year, and they’re getting crucified, and I don’t think it’s justified just because they weren’t able to do it. We’re a really good and deep team too, and that’s how things go sometimes.”
“It’s actually really unfortunate” is a rich thing to say when you’re one of the biggest leaders of the Leaf-killer march, but it’s also hard to disagree with his point. Mostly the part about the Panthers being a really good team, as well. After all, they’ve won two Stanley Cups in a row.
The Maple Leafs will likely have to go through Marchand again if they make the playoffs, so it’s very possible we could be recycling this piece sometime in May 2026.
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