Emotional tribute from Brad Marchand in return from absence.

It was a tough week for Florida Panthers star forward Brad Marchand, but on Saturday night he returned to the National Hockey League with a force.

Marchand took an unexpected leave of absence this past week when an unimaginable tragedy occured back in his home province of Nova Scotia. Marchand's former trainer and long time friend JP MacCallum suffered a horrible less when his 10 year old daughter, Selah MacCallum, tragically lost her battle with cancer. Losing someone to such a terrible disease is always going to be a tragedy, but to lose a child at such a young age is something truly horrific that no parent should ever have to experience.

Much to his credit, Marchand flew home to be with his friend and even participated in a special charity event in her honor showing the entire world what kind of man he really is when it really matters. Marchand received praise around the league for selflessly putting his friend first and on Saturday night he once again showed his softer side when he paid a special tribute to young Selah.

In his first game back with the Panthers Marchand wasted little time finding the back of the net, and you could tell that thoughts of Selah were weighing heavily on his heart and on his mind when he pointed his finger to the sky in an emotional tribute to Selah. The moment was written all over Marchand's face as well, with the usually brash forward breathing a huge sigh after scoring the goal as if the pressure that he had put on himself to score a goal for Selah was lifted off of his shoulders in that moment.

An amazing moment and one that I hope Marchand will speak about after the game has wrapped up.