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Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli denies Brad Marchand trade report

Brad Marchand had 25 goals and 28 assists for the Bruins last season.AP

LOS ANGELES — For the second time in less than a year, Peter Chiarelli has shot down trade rumors regarding left winger Brad Marchand. The latest came Friday after a report surfaced the Bruins were in discussions for the Sharks’ Patrick Marleau.

“I have had no discussions for Marchand and I have no plans to trade him,” the Bruins general manager relayed in a text message. “I don’t make it a practice to respond to reports in the social media, but occasionally it is necessary.”

Marleau would not seem to be a financial fit for the Bruins, with three years and $20 million left on his contract ($6.66 million cap hit), which has a no-movement clause. Marchand has three years left on a four-year, $18 million deal that carries a $4.5 million cap hit. Marchand also has a no-trade clause.

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Marleau had 33 goals and 37 assists this season for the Sharks, a team looking to make changes after a first-round playoff exit. San Jose fell to the Kings after being up three games to none. But Marleau will be 35 in September, and the Bruins cannot afford to take on a lot of salary. Boston will need to be creative to re-sign forward Jarome Iginla with the overages from his 2013-14 contract eating into the salary cap for this coming year.

Chiarelli last commented on rumors concerning Marchand in December, shortly after coach Claude Julien and the GM himself, made it clear they were unhappy with some of the wingers on-ice antics.

“Let me be clear on Marchy,” Chiarelli said then. “I’m not trading Marchy. He’s a good player. I like the way he plays.”

Marchand was struggling at the time, but rebounded to score 25 goals, third on the Bruins. His 53 points were good for fifth on the team.

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Marchand, though, struggled in the postseason. He missed a number of opportunities and finished with just five assists. He also led the team with 18 penalty minutes, two of them on an unsportsmanlike conduct call for snowing Montreal goalie Carey Price in Game 7.

“Every year I seem to have this comment about him finding a balance between irritance/agitator and a real good player,” Chiarelli said at the end of the season. “I think sometimes his antics get in the way . . . It’s a challenge for Brad to play that aggressive way and not cross the line.

“He scored 25 goals and he thought he had a bad year. That’s where he puts his expectations and we talked about that other stuff and we had productive conversation. So I don’t know what it is, but we have to dial back some of that stuff, and that includes Marchy.”

The Bruins forward said last fall – in the wake of the trade of Tyler Seguin to the Stars – that he was worried he could be on the trade block. He wasn’t, and it appears for now that he’s again safe from being shipped out of Boston.

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Game 5 marked the 26th game of the playoffs for the Kings, which matched a single-year NHL record. Only two teams have done it previous, the 1987 Flyers and the 2004 Flames, who both played seven game series in the Cup Final. The Kings went to seven games in each of the first three rounds. … It was also the 63rd postseason game for the Kings in the last three seasons, also tying an NHL record set by Dallas from 1998-2000 and tied by Detroit from 2007-2009. … Of the teams that had faced a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final, 20 of them lost in Game 4, three lost in Game 5, one lost in Game 1, one lost in Game 7, and just one – the 1942 Maple Leafs – won Game 7.

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Follow Amalie Benjamin on Twitter at @amaliebenjamin.