It’s safe to say that despite holding a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period Wednesday night in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Florida Panthers, the Boston Bruins felt like they should have been up more. John Beecher and Brad Marchand (although from a very difficult angle) whiffed on knocking rebounds into an open net that might have changed the outcome. Or not.
Florida stepped on the gas over the final 40 minutes and did something that had not happened yet in the postseason, they got four pucks by Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman. In fact, their fourth tally of the night early in the third period got Swayman pulled by head coach Jim Montgomery in favor of Linus Ullmark.
The 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner didn’t fare much better and was beaten twice in the Bruins’ 6-1 loss that sends the series back to Boston for Games 3 and 4 tied 1-1. Brandon Montour scored the last Panthers goal midway through the third period and after the goal, the Florida defenseman mocked Marchand.
Montour mocked Marchand by pretending to lick him, referring to what the Bruins captain did back in 2018 when he licked the face of Ryan Callahan of the Tampa Bay Lighting, who just happened to be the analyst on the ESPN broadcast Wednesday night. Of course, as soon as it happened, X went wild with it and Montour returned to his phone following the game with a lot of texts.
Brandon Montour receives a ton of texts of the licking emoji
Ahead of Friday night’s Game 3, Montour met with the media and said that he received a lot of licking emojis on his phone after the game. There is no reason to doubt whether or not that happened as Marchand is one of the players in the league who has pulled some shenanigans in his past and players around the league likely got a big kick out of Montour’s gesture.
Brandon Montour said he received lots of texts with the licking emoji after Game 2.
— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) May 10, 2024
You would have to think that the craziness that ensued in the final period of Game 2 would be put behind both teams after 136 minutes of penalties were handed out will be in the rearview mirror of both teams, but one thing will be put in the rearview mirror was Montour’s mimicking of Marchand to his face.