Bruins Captain Brad Marchand Rips Reporter to Shreds After a Controversial Report

The Boston Bruins have lost six games in a row and seven of their last eight following a 4-1 beating at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. They are currently 11 points behind the Leafs and sit one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins for the top wild card spot.

On Friday, Rich Keefe, co-host of the 'Jones and Keefe' show, revealed that their downward spiral may be linked to a rift between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.

The clip quickly went viral on social media prompting a surprisingly fast response from both Marchand and Pastrnak.

Marchand's passion-fuelled rant can be viewed in its entirety here:

Pastrnak had a bit of a longer response to questions about the reported rift between the long-time teammates.

Whether true or not, given turmoil earlier this season during negotiations with goaltender Jeremy Swayman, it is possible that the Bruins' front office intervened and had the two squash any potential beef publicly to avoid any major media storm.

The Bruins have always managed to turn these types of reports into motivation, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to see them go on a bit of run over the next few weeks and vault their way up the Atlantic Division standings.