Last Tuesday, the Florida Panthers announced that left winger Brad Marchand would be taking a leave of absence from the team to deal with a personal matter.
Marchand returned to his hometown of Halifax, Novia Scotia to support his friend JP MacCallum, who had lost his daughter Selah to cancer. She was just 10-years-old.
JP MacCallum is the current coach of the March and Mill Co. Hunters, the Nova Scotia U18 Hockey League team that Marchand co-owns. Marchand was a guest coach for the team following MacCallum’s absence.
“It’s tough. The only reason I’m back here is because something extremely tragic has happened. A beautiful life has been lost. My bond with JP goes back many years. We have a group of guys that are all here this evening. We grew up together. Our lives have been crossed for many, many years. There’s no place that I’d be other than here right now. I’m here to support him and his family, said Marchand is a pre-game interview with High Button Sports via X.
Prior to the start of the game Marchand also took to Instagram to announce fundraisers for the MacCallum family.
“Please join us in celebrating an amazing night at the rink made possible by the ongoing giving nature of a 10-year-old girl that loved the game with all her [heart],”️ Marchand said in the announcement.
Fundraisers included an autographed Marchand jersey, online raffles and a donation box at the game.
After the game, Marchand thanked everyone for their support via a video posted on his Instagram, where he expressed his gratitude for the donations and prayers for the MacCallum family.
Later in the week Marchand returned to Florida and suited up for the Panther’s Saturday night game against the Dallas Stars.
The Panthers were coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night entering their game against the Stars.
After a scoreless first period, Marchand opened the scoring just a minute into the second period with a heavy wrist shot assisted by Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell.
Teammate Sam Reinhart added to Florida’s lead two minutes later, but the Stars scored two goals of their own to leave the game tied 2-2 entering the third period.
After a backhand shot, Sam Bennett successfully netted a goal of his own during the third period to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead. Despite fighting off the Stars’ relentless shooting attempts for the majority of the third, Mikko Rantanen was able to get a goal past Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to send the game into overtime.
A scoreless overtime resulted in a shootout between the Stars and Panthers with none other than Marchand being the overtime hero to send the Panthers into a 4-3 victory.
“There are some incredible moments in life you just have to enjoy, not take too seriously and just kind of be in the moment. I wasn’t nervous or anything being out there. It was more of a great opportunity to honor Selah. I knew all the guys were watching back home. I know she’s watching from up above. I knew she was with me on that one,’’ said Marchand in a post game interview.