Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Marc Savard going viral for wild goal celebrations
Marc Savard is quickly learning just how frantic watching the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs can be.
In his first season with the Leafs as an assistant coach — his third such job in the NHL — the longtime NHL veteran has been going viral for his reactions to Leafs goals while on the bench.
His animated goal reactions — occasionally coming with a death stare from the more measured head coach Craig Berube — have picked up steam over the Leafs’ first seven playoff games.
The shots of the Leafs bench even resulted in nearly five minutes of coverage from the Sportsnet panel in Monday night’s Game 1 between the Leafs and the Panthers, with the introduction of a “Savvy Metre” to rate just how hyped — or not — he’s gotten over each Toronto goal.
The metre first gave Savard a 10 for his reaction to a 2-0 goal in Game 1 of the first-round matchup against the Ottawa Senators, but subsequently gave him an eight and a four for goals later in the series.
Savard last played in the NHL in 2011, winning the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins despite missing the end of the season and the entire playoffs due to a series of concussions that ultimately forced him to retire.
Understanding what made Savard tick as a player probably helps to explain why he’s naturally so emotional on the bench — it’s pretty much his whole life.
“You have to understand that for a lot of us guys — not just me — hockey is the only thing that we’ve ever known,” Savard wrote in a 2017 article for The Players’ Tribune.
“I stopped going to school full-time at 15. I played almost 10 years in the NHL without even seeing the playoffs. I fought my whole career just to get on a team that was a Stanley Cup contender. Even at home, my kids knew their dad as a hockey player. They watched every game. It was my entire identity. Maybe it sounds crazy, but all I thought about, 24/7, was getting back on the ice.”
The panel also planned to keep the “Savvy Metre” for games moving forward, so perhaps we’ll see it once again later in the playoffs.
- You might also like:
- Justin Bieber skips out on Met Gala to watch Toronto Maple Leafs on massive TV