Brad Marchand Gets 1,000th NHL Point

SUNRISE, Fla. — On Thursday night, Brad Marchand hit a career-milestone many could only dream of.

1,000 NHL points.

Marchand entered Thursday’s contest against the Washington Capitals with 998 career NHL points. He left the arena as the 102nd player in the NHL’s 100-plus year history to reach that number, and 12th active player in the league with the accolade.

Point no. 999 came with 10:10 remaining in the third period, after defenseman Seth Jones fired in a point-shot for his first goal of the season, and 100th of his career.

With the Panthers leading 5-3 late in the third, the Capitals pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. Paul Maurice threw Marchand on the ice.

The rest was history.

Marchand eclipsed career point No. 1000 with 90 seconds to go in regulation after Eetu Luostarinen floated in an empty-netter to set up his teammate with a life-long memory.

“You know, [I] kind of hoped it would be tonight,” Marchand said. “I had the family here… and it’s nice to do it at home too.”

When the puck hit the net’s twine, the entire Panthers bench cleared, flooding out to the ice to celebrate alongside Marchand.

“It was awesome, it was special,” Seth Jones said of the team celebrating on the ice with Marchand, “We’re a tight knit group in here and he’s had an amazing career so far. It feels like he’s got a lot left in the tank the way he’s playing for us this year.”

As for clearing the bench, Jones said the team spoke beforehand that they would celebrate with Marchand when he did hit the milestone.

At 37 years old, Marchand is the oldest player on the Panthers. Despite being in his 17th NHL season, the Halifax native has been the embodiment of “age is just a number”, as he leads the Panthers with 20 points through 16 games.

”He’s been so prolific over his career,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice spoke of Marchand. “It’s good for him to kind of have an experience [like that] at home. I think that’s really nice that he gets to have the fans appreciate it, celebrate it with him.”

Alongside becoming just the 102nd player to amass 1,000 points, Marchand is just the fifth player from the province of Nova Scotia to do so, joining Al MacInnis, Bobby Smith, and his good friends Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon.

“We have a lot of pride coming from where we do,” Marchand said of being from Nova Scotia postgame. “Growing up, a lot of the other provinces kind of overlooked us in the games we played — in different competitions.

“We always felt like we had something to prove. There’s more and more guys coming out of Nova Scotia to become really good players, and it’s great to see… there’s a lot of pride when we compete on the ice together and we have success together, so it’s fun to be from there for sure.”