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In a series rapidly shifting from the arena to the Actors Studio, it’s getting hard to separate the drama from the devious.
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But the Boston Bruins have seized on Max Domi bumping goaltender Jeremy Swayman in Game 3 as a further road rallying point after winning at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday and taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven.
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During a second-period break with the game scoreless and Toronto netminder Ilya Samsonov needing to re-adjust his mask after taking a puck to the head, Swayman went to the Boston bench as Domi headed the other way. They got close enough to brush on the stick-blade side of the left shooting Domi. While the Toronto player could’ve taken a wider path, it didn’t seem to be enough to have Swayman sprawl to the ice as he did.
It wasn’t apparent to players or observers what had happened though Patrick Maroon of the Bruins immediately went to the officials.
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“Those are the things in the game you don’t really want to allow,” Boston defenceman Brandon Carlo said Thursday morning at the team’s Toronto hotel. “I didn’t see it, Patty did, and he was making sure everyone (on the bench) knew Domi had done that.”
The Leafs were already in an uproar that Boston captain Brad Marchand had got away with knocking down Tyler Bertuzzi away from the play, distracting them before a Trent Frederic goal. At the end of Game 2, a Leafs win, Bertuzzi got in an extra whack on Marchand who fell like he’d been shot. Marchand’s Game 3 impunity prompted Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe to ponder if Marchand’s long NHL tenure and mischievous nature had made the zebras shrug off his actions.
Boston coach Jim Montgomery commented Thursday he had no doubt of Domi’s intent, saying when he “comes off the bench and bumps him on purpose … it makes me think maybe (Swayman) is in their head.”
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That was disputed across town, where Keefe gave a solo press conference during a full day off for his team.
“I sense zero frustration; I think it’s playoff hockey,” he said. “Things are happening all over the ice.
“With (Montgomery’s) logic, you would say every time they bump into one of our guys, maybe we’re in their heads. I don’t think that has anything to do with anything.”
BREAK COULD SWAY DECISION
Before Game 3, Montgomery didn’t mind saying he was upset with the series schedule and its two-day break until Saturday with Boston on the road with another 48-hour hiatus between Games 4 and 5. He wryly noted the home-ice advantage team was spending more time in Toronto. That was before his club won, which he acknowledged made it easier for his team to decompress and perhaps come back with Swayman in net.
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After Swayman won three of four against the Leafs in regular season and made 30-plus saves in Game 1, Montgomery stayed true to his alternating with Linus Ullmark in Toronto’s 3-2 victory.
“The rotation has been so good for us,” Montgomery said of the past two seasons. “That’s a harder decision.”
For the rest of his team, he observed “two days off, one day off … there is no carryover of momentum (in playoffs) that I’ve noticed for years. Selfishly for me, today I get to visit my sister in Pickering (a Toronto suburb).”
TORONTO UNPLUGGED
Montgomery wouldn’t go so far to say his team has nullified Toronto’s star-studded power play. But the Leafs’ No. 1 unit, despite an NHL playoff-high 11 chances as of Thursday afternoon, had produced only one goal.
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“Words matter, I don’t think we’ve nullified their power play,” Montgomery cautioned. “Our goalie and players did their job and we were able to clear pucks from dangerous areas, thankfully.
“But (assistant and ex-Leaf Joe Sacco) for years has done an incredible great job on the penalty kill. He has a great plan and very rarely does he show it to me and I (argue), saying ‘maybe we should do this’. His just make sense.
“On the flip side, it’s Chris Kelly’s first year as our power play guy (Boston is 5-for-10 in the series) after some late-season struggles.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Toronto has dropped five straight home playoff games since 2023, longest in the Air Canada Centre-Scotiabank era and most since a stretch between 1987 (the penultimate game of blowing a 3-1 series lead to Detroit), through ‘88 (all three to the Wings) to 1990 (Game 3 of a series eventually won by St. Louis) … Frederic said Game 3’s goal was one of the weirdest he can remember, an innocent-looking short-side shot that beat Ilya Samsonov in the midst of mayhem of non-calls, including the Bertuzzi and Marchand scuffle and lots of yapping on both benches. “It was really weird, trying to tell the guys I’d scored,” Frederic said. “Normally you get a reaction from teammates or the crowd. It was similar to my first NHL goal in Lake Tahoe (an outdoor game). There were no fans (at rink side). I’m thinking ‘that was in, but no one is reacting’.” … The Montreal-born bilingual Montgomery is a bonus for the French-Canadian media who’ve picked up this series with the Habs and Senators out of the playoffs.
lhornby@postmedia.com
X: @sunhornby
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