Brad Marchand voluntarily reflects on dumbest moments of his career

BOSTON -- Since the start of the 2015-16 NHL season, only five players in the league have scored more goals than Brad Marchand, and only seven have produced more points. He's made four year-end All-Star teams (two first teams, two second teams) while getting Hart votes for five straight seasons, finishing as high as fifth on two occasions.

Clearly, he's proven himself as an elite hockey player, and the "C" on his chest these days indicates that he's come a long way in his career. Still, there are many in the hockey world who will always see him as the oft-suspended, occasional-licker that came to be known as during the early years of his career.

Now 35 years old, Marchand is at least able to laugh at some of his previous antics. And in an interview with the "What Chaos!" show, he voluntarily divulged what he considers to be the "dumbest" moments of his career.

"I've got more dumb ones than funny ones," Marchand said when asked what the "funniest" moments of his career might have been. "I think we all have to agree the dumbest moment of my career ... I'm trying to think. There's a few. I mean, a very blatant, obvious one would probably be the Callahan one."

Marchand was of course referring to his decision to lick the face of Ryan Callahan during the 2018 playoffs. That wasn't the only licking incident of his career, as Leo Komarov can attest, but it stuck out as particularly dumb to Marchand in this moment.

After some more reflection, though, Marchand came up with another.

"Oh, the one on [Tristan] Jarry wasn't very smart, either," he admitted. "That one wasn't very smart. Those were a couple bad ones."

The Jarry incident involved Marchand punching the Penguins' goaltender in the head after a whistle. 

The action resulted in a six-game suspension for Marchand. At the time, Marchand appealed that suspension but lost, forcing him to miss more than 7 percent of the season.

That was the eighth suspension of Marchand's career, during which he's also been fined five times.

At various points throughout that career, Marchand might not have been so willing to discuss the lower points. But with a year and a half of good behavior and some added perspective, the Bruins' captain seemed almost eager to publicly admit that he's made some mistakes.