Things are settled! Whether fans can accept it or not, Brad Marchand will now play for the Florida Panthers. On Marchand’s end, he certainly did his best to soften the blow by taking out a full-page advertisement in the Boston Globe to convey an emotional message to the Bruins faithful. “We are Bostonians now and forever,” he wrote. But regardless of his graceful adieu, the fact of the matter remains that he is no longer a Bruin. A fact that fans have had to painfully come to terms with, in light of a new development.

So what’s brewing now? What is the new stir in the sauce? Well, Brad Marchand was seen on ice at TD Garden. Of course, nothing out of the blue here! But what do we see? Marchand in a Panthers jersey. The brouhaha indeed is expected here!

After the Friday deal, Brad Marchand was now seen in his new avatar with new teammates. More than that, it also surprised many, for he suffered an upper-body injury right before the trade. So, Bruins fans were expecting a bit of a cushion before they had to see their former icon in another team’s colors.

That’s that. Questions are hurling on a different dimension now. Brad Marchand is wearing Panthers gear, and fans cannot digest the very fact. Some are calling out the Florida Panthers. Some are spitting outright hatred on Marchand himself. And we get it here; it is an emotional rollercoaster for everyone, with Bruins fans bearing the lion’s share of the emotional weight.

Fans are not happy with Brad Marchand’s new avatar

Brad Marchand getting traded to the Florida Panthers was a massacre for the Bruins fan clan. Absolutely not happy with the decisions of the management; fans have been persistently calling out GM Don Sweeney. However, with Marchand’s latest appearance, the stir has just intensified on Reddit.

And now that the former Bruins captain has joined the Panthers, it could be that the Bruins fans might now cheer for the Panthers. A truly unwanted fate. A fan wrote, “The worst part about this is having Bruins fans likely cheering for the Panthers in the playoffs when we inevitably play them like, come on.”

Another Reddit user reacted more humorously. “Thanks, I hate it. Not because I hate seeing Marchand not in a Bruins jersey. Just because I hate Marchand.” Harsh, but not unexpected given Marchand’s reputation for being a heel. After all, he epitomizes the type of player you love to have on your team but hate to see on your rival’s team.

But for the Bruins fans in the comments, there was no humor to be found in the situation. “Can we stop? please?” pleaded one fan. This is the guy who’d been with the franchise for over a decade, the last stalwart from the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team. Losing Marchand means the closure of an entire chapter of Bruins history. The end of an era, to say the least.

And clearly, this is a sentiment that even opposition fans can relate to. One comment read, “I’m actually feeling for Bruins fans over that trade. I don’t like Marchand (because he’s not our guy), but him going to the Panthers has to really really sting.” And things just take time to settle. But putting an end to a legacy of 16 years and joining a new team, the Florida Panthers, one of the Bruins’ rivals, definitely hits hard.

Similarly, another non-Bruins fan wrote, “he looks sad and out of place not a Bruin’s fan by any stretch… but geez… let him go back or I might cry.”  It’s understandable that fans from every fanbase would react this way. Imagine Sidney Crosby wearing anything but the black and yellow of the Penguins. The Marchand trade was just as unimaginable. Until it wasn’t.

So yeah, it’s not surprising that not just Bruins fans but NHL fans in general needed some time to adjust to this new normal. Especially as the Florida Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice, said Brad Marchand would need some more time to get completely healed from the injury before he makes his debut. So his unexpected appearance certainly caused quite the stir!