‘Gold Or Bust’: Brad Marchand Drops Honest Truth About Canada Hockey

BOSTON — Bruins captain Brad Marchand may not have realized it at the time, but he celebrated a special milestone on TD Garden ice Thursday night.

He and Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby each won their country’s sixth gold medal on the international stage after defeating Team USA 3-2 in overtime in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.

“I didn’t even know that, to be honest with you,” Marchand said of winning his sixth gold medal. “I think it’s one of those things where every opportunity is extremely rare, and you’re extremely grateful for the moment.”

Marchand has won gold at the U18 Junior World Cup, the World Cup of Hockey, the IIHF World Championship and twice at the World Juniors. He and Crosby won gold together at the World Cup in 2016.

“Sid even said after the game, he said to me, ‘How much more do you appreciate it now after everything we’ve been through and how old we are and how long it’s been since that last one?'”

Marchand explained: “These aren’t things that are given. There’s an extreme amount of work that goes into it on a daily basis year-round. Not one guy in that room is there by chance or there by luck. It’s because of a lifetime of dedication to the sport. And when you have that, when you have guys that grew up like that and are built like that, we know, as Canadian players, the only outcome that is acceptable is a gold medal. So, we don’t come into a tournament hoping to get to the finals or hoping to get to the medal round. It’s gold or bust.”

Team Canada certainly had a stacked lineup that included Marchand, Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, to name a few. It was not lost on Marchand the elite talent that he was skating with.

“We’re extremely fortunate to have the caliber of players we do in our country and on our team,” he said. “But, I also think it speaks to the management group and the coaching staff of how they build these teams with character and guys that are pure determination and workhorses. They build a team, they don’t necessarily build the best players — they build the best team, and you see that all the time.”