Maple Leafs Coach Takes Shot At Bruins’ Brad Marchand After Game 3

All it took was three games for Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand to get under the skin of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Marchand was at the center of Boston’s 4-2 road win in Game 3 of its opening-round playoff series, not only for the two third-period goals he scored but also for an exchange he had with Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi during the second period.

Marchand and Bertuzzi went back and forth, using their sticks to get in the way of one another during the run of play. Marchand and Bertuzzi both got tripped up and a couple of moments later, Marchand got his stick between Bertuzzi’s skates and took down his former Bruins teammate again.

There was no penalty called on the play and to make matters worse for the Maple Leafs, Trent Frederic scored right after Marchand and Bertuzzi’s tussle.

That made Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe’s frustration boil over and call out Marchand following the game.

“You got to recognize he’s a world-class player both in ability and how he plays with the gamesmanship and everything. It’s world class,” Keefe told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “He’s been in the league long enough as you can see. He gets calls. It’s unbelievable, actually, how it goes. We got to play through that stuff. I don’t think there’s another player in this series that gets away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the way that he does. There’s not one other player in this series that gets away with that, but he does.

“It’s an art and he’s elite at it. So, we have to manage our way through that and avoid putting ourselves in situations where he can put us in those spots.”

Marchand didn’t just draw the ire of Keefe. Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies, who opened the scoring off a feed from Mitch Marner, also didn’t have complimentary words for Marchand.

“He wants to get under our skin and influence the refs, so I think we’ve just got to be composed and not kind of get into that (expletive),” Knies told reporters, per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston. “Just play hard and make him (less) effective.”