After calling out his forward's penalty on Brad Marchand as "undisciplined" following Game 1, the Maple Leafs coach wants officials to keep a watchful eye on the other side of the ice.
After calling out his forward's penalty on Brad Marchand as "undisciplined" following Game 1, the Maple Leafs coach wants officials to keep a watchful eye on the other side of the ice.
BOSTON — Sheldon Keefe understood what Max Domi was trying to do.
Hoping to send a message and bring up the intensity, the Toronto Maple Leafs forward began Game 1 by hacking away at Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand before the opening faceoff.
After Domi got a talking to with officials, he eventually saw the wrath from the zebras when the forward slashed Marchand in the wrist.
The Bruins eventually scored on the ensuing power play, putting the Bruins on top 4-0 in the second period and effectively taking the Leafs out of the game.
Was Domi too emotional for what Game 1 called for?
"I mean, hey, we sent a message for sure and obviously came up a little bit short," Domi said. "But we did a lot of good things last game so just got to keep doing the good stuff."
The Maple Leafs fell 5-1 to the Bruins and Keefe called Domi's penalty undisciplined while it also "crossed the line" of intensity putting his team at risk.
That said, Keefe doesn't want Domi to dial his intensity back.
"I don't need Max to change anything about who he is and how he plays. He's an important guy for us, and I love the intensity he brought the other night. He got caught on the penalty," the Maple Leafs coach said of Domi. "I know their guy's probably going to get the same slash probably ten times in the rest of this series, and we'll see if he gets called on it. But I love Max's intensity."
That's Keefe essentially sending a message to the officials for some equality if Marchand decided to take matters into his own hands in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series which takes place on Monday at TD Garden.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecE8EIIkPE[/embed]
Marchand has been a thorn in the Leafs; side for years and made his presence felt earlier this season when the forward tripped Timothy Liljegren in the corner boards, injuring the Maple Leafs defenseman. Marchand later had a mouthful to say at the Leafs bench and nobody responded to the hit, something the Leafs were heavily criticized for.
The Maple Leafs trail the Bruins 1-0 in their best-of-seven first-round series.
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