Brad Marchand has avoided thinking about it as a way to protect his emotions.

But the time has come.

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Marchand will step on the ice at TD Garden on Tuesday night for the first time since the Bruins traded him to the Panthers ahead of last season's trade deadline. Given the Panthers won the Stanley Cup three months after they acquired Marchand, the Black and Gold ultimately received a future first-round pick in the deal.

"I kind of thought about it for the first time last night," said Marchand, who went to dinner with former Bruins teammates Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask and Adam McQuaid. "Being here, I was actually going to dinner, and on the way over I was kind of thinking about it and started to

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