It evoked smiles all around and was the new sign that Marchand has grown very comfortable in his new surroundings with his new teammates.
Marchand is back in Boston, preparing for Tuesday night — his first game against the Bruins, the franchise he cut his NHL teeth with and then made his NHL bones with after being drafted in the third round in 2006.
The 17-year veteran with 1,107 games and 986 points on his résumé said he’s looking forward to the chance to play against faces he’s so familiar with.
“It’ll be fun to compete against my … guys I’ve played with for a long time and be on the other side of it in here,” Marchand said. “I’m sure it’ll be a pretty intense game, so it’ll be fun to play in front of the Bruins fans again. Yeah, so I’m excited.”
The pause between “my” and “guys” made it clear the spoked-B still pulls at Marchand’s heartstrings. He acknowledged it happened before and during a Sunday night dinner with ex-teammates Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask, and Adam McQuaid.
“That was a nice reunion,” Marchand said with a grin, noting that he was “bullied” into picking up the check. “A bunch of old guys sitting together reminiscing.”
After being traded at the deadline, Marchand was thrust into the Panthers’ run to a second straight Stanley Cup title. There wasn’t a lot of time to look back then.
“I kind of thought about it for the first time last night. Being here, I was actually going to dinner and on the way over I was kind of thinking about it and started to get a little emotional,” said Marchand with a hint of a crack in his voice. “Just, it kind of hits you when you’re here a little bit more. I haven’t thought about it a ton up until this point, but I think that’s probably why I don’t, [because] I know I’ll get emotional about it, but yeah, it’ll be hard not to. There’s too many memories and I was here too long for it not to.”
Another reunion is on tap Tuesday night with David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, his longtime teammates and friends and his alternate captains the last two seasons in Boston.
He plans to meet up with some of his former mates following the game, which he expects will be up to Bruins-Panthers standards of the last three seasons.
“There’s a respect factor and a lot for the guys, but it gets pretty intense, pretty quick out there. It takes one guy kind of even bumping you the wrong way and emotions get high,” said Marchand. “They have a very competitive team. Aggressive style and guys compete. It’s just naturally going to be elevated. So yeah, I’m sure it’ll be, we will keep the nice chatter for before or after.”
The not-so-nice chatter? Marchand’s known leaguewide for his world-class chirping and his ex-teammates are expecting it.
“Oh yeah, he for sure is going to be all over [us] … He’s going to run his mouth,” said Pastrnak with a big smile. “I can’t wait for the matchup. It’ll be really fun. Maybe he’ll be too nice? We’ll see.”
Chirps from Marchand will conjure memories for McAvoy.
“It’ll definitely set me a little back if he’s got some chirps for me,” said McAvoy. “It’ll feel like practice all over again. But I am really excited to see him. You know, that’s a game we’ve got to go home and win, we’ve got to get this right, so we’ve got to win that game. … But after, I am looking forward to giving him a big hug.”
The ability to bust chops was one of the reasons Marchand fit in so well so quickly in Florida.
“Usually, it takes you a couple of weeks to get to know the new guys before you’re walking around the room chirping everybody. It was the first hour. He did that in an hour. Got that figured out,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice.
As for what Marchand expects from the Garden crowd Tuesday?
“I’m sure it’s going to be tough on some people. They won’t be able to cheer. I know they don’t like the Panthers very much, but maybe they’ll like me enough to give it a little ‘Yay’ out there or something,” he said. “I think there’ll be a little bit of love there, maybe if I do something good. If I do something bad, they’ll probably boo me pretty quick.”
Without the slightest hesitation, however, Marchand said the fans are the best thing about Boston.
“Hockey-wise, the city’s incredible. I’ve lived in a bunch of different areas around here and the city’s incredible, but the fans make it awesome and they’re just very unique,” he said. “Some of the stories and things that I’ve seen fans do — and a lot of ‘em aren’t PG-rated in playoff runs and stuff like that. It’s so special and I think so unique to this area. It’s as simple as every time I’d go get a coffee, I’d have the same routine, so the same coffee shop every day and [there’d be a] message on your cup. If I had a good game or bad game the night before, you know what I mean? ‘A tough one for you last night.’ So, I mean all the way down, they bleed black and gold.”
Kevin Paul Dupont of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Salt Lake City.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.
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