Marchand inspires Bruins with leadership, 3 points in Game 3 win

TORONTO -- As soon as Jim Montgomery took the ice for the Boston Bruins morning skate, he knew there was just something about his team that day, something about his captain. Brad Marchand was already sniping at the coach, already pushing buttons, already in vintage form.

“Morning skate, I saw the way we were, I saw the way our captain was. And I just knew we were going to have a good game,” the Bruins coach said. “Didn’t know we were going to win, because the [Toronto Maple] Leafs are a good hockey team. But I knew we were coming to play.”

Why?

“He started barking the first drill,” Montgomery said. “I go, it’s three minutes early. He goes, ‘Let’s go!’ I loved it.”

He laughed.

He was right.

After remaining relatively quiet over the first two games of the series -- with two assists in Game 1 and another in Game 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 goals, the game-winner and the empty-netter that sealed a 4-2 win in Game 3 for the Bruins. In the process, he tied Cam Neely for the most all-time playoff goals in franchise history with 55.

“Just excited, you know?” Marchand said, of why he was so ready at skate. “It’s not a given that you get the opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Just kind of woke up with that gratitude of being excited, understanding that it’s a gift to play in this league.

“Playoffs is something that we dream about as kids. I talk to my kids about it and their dream is to play at this level. To realize that we’re living it? I just woke up with that gratitude that we’re lucky to be here. You want to make the most of this opportunity.”

It was pure Marchand. Classic Marchand.

It was his will -- and a heck of a game from goalie Jeremy Swayman -- that allowed the Bruins to take the 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round series against the Maple Leafs in the. In the process, the Bruins wrenched back momentum from the Maple Leafs, who had come to Boston and split with the Bruins in the first two games.

How did Marchand set the tone in this one?

“Every way possible, I think,” forward Charlie Coyle said.

But, in as many ways as this was vintage Marchand, it also wasn’t. It was the new-and-improved version, a player who is smart enough to (mostly) stay on the right side of the line, to irritate the Maple Leafs into mistakes and consternation. It didn’t used to be the case.

But now?

“I think it’s age, right?” Montgomery said. “Obviously everybody in the playoffs targets the other team’s best players and he gets targeted. He still manages to get under people’s skin and yet he doesn’t cross the line. It’s something that you’ve just got to tip your hat to him because of his maturity as a hockey player and as a person.”

And there was no question that Marchand had gotten into the heads of the Maple Leafs. Not only did he spend most of the game tangling with Tyler Bertuzzi, briefly his teammate last season after the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline, but he produced offensively.

His first goal was a backbreaker, coming just 28 seconds after the Maple Leafs had tied the score 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 period.

At 11:53, Danton Heinen found himself with the puck behind the goal line in the corner. He whipped the puck to Marchand at the right dot. Marchand lifted the puck just over Ilya Samsonov’s glove, just under the crossbar.

“Emotionally, he’s our leader,” defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “He drags us into the fight every night. It’s on us to follow right behind, close.”

With an assist on Jake DeBrusk’s power-play goal at 1:07 of the third, Marchand now leads the Bruins with six points (two goals, four assists) in three games.

“He’s always risen to big moments,” Montgomery said. “You look at his career points in the playoffs. Like, wow.”

The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, were not quite as thrilled with Marchand.

“You’ve got to recognize the world-class player both in ability and how he plays,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The gamesmanship and everything, it’s world-class. ... We’ve got to play through that.”

Because they didn’t on Wednesday. The Bruins had not generated much through the first two periods and, when Matthew Knies scored at 13:10 of the second period to put the Maple Leafs up 1-0, it seemed like they might take control of the game and the series. But then, as Marchand and Bertuzzi battled from the blue line to center ice, Trent Frederic followed by sneaking down the left side of the ice and evening the score at 17:37.

The Bruins had life.

“He wants to get under our skin …,” Knies said. “So I think we’ve just got to be composed and not get into that [stuff]. Just play hard and make him least effective.”

That will be the task when the Maple Leafs and Bruins return to the ice on Saturday for Game 4 in Toronto, in what could be a back-breaking game if the Bruins can bring what they did in Game 3.

There’s no question that Marchand will bring that, will bring what Marchand called “a burning intensity in him to win.”

He knows he’s lucky to be here. The Bruins know they’re equally fortunate to have him.

“That’s our leader,” Swayman said. “He’s a captain through and through. He doesn’t take no for an answer. He leads by example. He’s just the pinnacle of what a captain should be and we’re so lucky to have him in this room.”