TORONTO — As quickly as Jim Montgomery took the ice for the Boston Bruins morning skate, he knew there was simply one thing about his group that day, one thing about his captain. Brad Marchand was already sniping on the coach, already pushing buttons, already in classic kind.
“Morning skate, I noticed the way in which we had been, I noticed the way in which our captain was. And I simply knew we had been going to have a superb sport,” the Bruins coach mentioned. “Didn’t know we had been going to win, as a result of the [Toronto Maple] Leafs are a superb hockey group. However I knew we had been coming to play.”
Why?
“He began barking the primary drill,” Montgomery mentioned. “I am going, it’s three minutes early. He goes, ‘Let’s go!’ I cherished it.”
He laughed.
He was proper.
After remaining comparatively quiet over the primary two video games of the collection — with two assists in Sport 1 and one other in Sport 2 — Marchand arrived in all his glory on Wednesday, in all his goal-scoring, getting-under-their-skin, tangling-on-the-ice, glory. He scored two targets, the game-winner and the empty-netter that sealed a 4-2 win in Sport 3 for the Bruins. Within the course of, he tied Cam Neely for probably the most all-time playoff targets in franchise historical past with 55.
“Simply excited, you realize?” Marchand mentioned, of why he was so prepared at skate. “It’s not a given that you just get the chance to play within the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Simply form of awoke with that gratitude of being excited, understanding that it’s a present to play on this league.
“Playoffs is one thing that we dream about as children. I speak to my children about it and their dream is to play at this stage. To comprehend that we’re residing it? I simply awoke with that gratitude that we’re fortunate to be right here. You need to profit from this chance.”
It was pure Marchand. Basic Marchand.
It was his will — and a heck of a sport from goalie Jeremy Swayman — that allowed the Bruins to take the 2-1 lead within the best-of-7 Japanese Convention First Spherical collection in opposition to the Maple Leafs within the. Within the course of, the Bruins wrenched again momentum from the Maple Leafs, who had come to Boston and cut up with the Bruins within the first two video games.
How did Marchand set the tone on this one?
“Each approach attainable, I believe,” ahead Charlie Coyle mentioned.
However, in as some ways as this was classic Marchand, it additionally wasn’t. It was the new-and-improved model, a participant who is sensible sufficient to (principally) keep on the fitting facet of the road, to annoy the Maple Leafs into errors and consternation. It didn’t was once the case.
However now?
“I believe it’s age, proper?” Montgomery mentioned. “Clearly everyone within the playoffs targets the opposite group’s greatest gamers and he will get focused. He nonetheless manages to get underneath folks’s pores and skin and but he doesn’t cross the road. It’s one thing that you just’ve simply acquired to tip your hat to him due to his maturity as a hockey participant and as an individual.”
And there was no query that Marchand had gotten into the heads of the Maple Leafs. Not solely did he spend many of the sport tangling with Tyler Bertuzzi, briefly his teammate final season after the 2023 NHL Commerce Deadline, however he produced offensively.
His first aim was a backbreaker, coming simply 28 seconds after the Maple Leafs had tied the rating at 2-2 on a freak play, a slap-pass from Morgan Rielly that pinballed off Bertuzzi’s skate, off Hampus Lindholm’s skate and in. That was at 11:25 of the third interval.
At 11:53, Danton Heinen discovered himself with the puck behind the aim line within the nook. He whipped the puck to Marchand on the proper dot. Marchand lifted the puck simply over Ilya Samsonov’s glove, slightly below the crossbar.
“Emotionally, he’s our chief,” defenseman Charlie McAvoy mentioned. “He drags us into the struggle each night time. It’s on us to observe proper behind, shut.”