Breaking: Tyler Toffoli walks around Toronto wearing a Canadiens jersey….

Tyler Toffoli’s stay in Montreal was short-lived, but he made his mark.

For his important goals (especially in the 2021 playoffs), his charisma and his leadership, he left his mark on Montreal. The feeling is reciprocal, since he and his wife have not stopped praising the metropolis in recent years.
This afternoon, both are in the metropolis… Toronto. A stop at the Rogers Centre is in order.

Their presence is likely to have whipped the Blue Jays into shape, as they won an excellent offensive match by a score of 10-8.
Toronto was trailing 7-1 at one point.
Also worth noting: the future free agent (he’ll become one in July) walks the streets of the Queen City with a Canadiens jersey in a bag. It’s not even that discreet…

So I’m here to confirm that Toffoli will be signing in Montreal in July.

No kidding, it’s interesting to know that the forward still has the Habs in his heart. Is the jersey for him? Is it for a family member? I have no idea.

A native of Scarborough, Toffoli came to cheer on his childhood baseball team and visit family. It’s not because he’s going to sign in Toronto… I could be wrong, because you get the feeling that Canada is very important to the family. The 32-year-old has already played for four of the seven Canadian teams (Flames, Canadiens, Canucks and Jets).

He could potentially play for a fifth Canadian team this summer. That would be pretty special.
In 79 games this season with the Devils and Jets, Toffoli collected 55 points, including 33 goals. We can expect him to sign a nice contract, though.
In gusto

It finally ended five minutes to midnight when Taylor Wenczkowski scored to put Boston one game away from sweeping Montreal out of the playoffs.

LAVAL — The record book of a fledgling hockey league like the Professional Women’s Hockey League takes shape minute by minute, period after period, game after game. It includes exploits with a more or less ephemeral lifespan: the most goals in a match by a team, by an athlete, the most shutouts, the most penalty minutes, the most shots, etc. But some of the feats of arms carried out Saturday evening at Place Bell could survive for a long time in the annals of the PWHL.

After Game 1 of the best-of-five semifinal between Montreal and Boston lasted 74 minutes and 25 seconds on the ice, and three hours and nine minutes in real time, Saturday’s triple-overtime marathon went almost six full periods — 111 minutes and 44 seconds spread over four hours and 47 minutes.

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It finally ended five minutes to midnight when Boston’s Taylor Wenczkowski scored to give the visitors a 2-1 win and put Boston one game away from sweeping Montreal out of the playoffs.

Some of the individual stats in this match are out of this world. Two days after a 53-save performance, Boston goalie Aerin Frankel blocked 56 shots. Ann-Renée Desbiens at the other end of the ice stopped 50.

Then there is Montreal defender Erin Ambrose, who had 61 minutes and 33 seconds of ice time — more than half the total.

Four of her teammates crossed the threshold of 50 minutes of action: defender Kati Tabin (56:49) and attackers Kristin O’Neill (52:44), Laura Stacey (52:30) and Marie-Philip Poulin (50:33).

Stacey led all skaters with nine shots on goal, one more than Poulin, teammate Maureen Murphy and rival Hilary Knight, who was used for 49:23, more than any other Boston player.

Meeting the media after the match, Stacey was visibly exhausted.

“Recently, someone came to talk to us and told us that it’s when our body is exhausted, or when we feel like we have nothing left physically, that we have to fight and we never know what we have left inside of us,” she said.

“And I think that’s what we repeated to each other in the locker room, on the bench. It hurts, it’s not pleasant, but let’s keep pushing and doing everything we mentally can to get through it.”

Amanda Pelly opened the scoring for Boston at 6:48 of the first period. O’Neill tied it on a power play at 1:58 of the second.

Montreal’s only goals in this series so far have come from O’Neill on the power play. And Montreal went a full seven minutes with the player advantage in the first overtime after Boston’s Lexie Adzija was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head, but couldn’t get the puck past Frankel.

Poulin appeared to score with 30 seconds left in regulation, but her goal came after a whistle halted play. The crowd — sold out at 10,172 spectators — loudly booed the referees after the no-goal was confirmed following a video review. They cheered when a similar call went their way, with 34 seconds left in the second overtime, when it was shown Desbiens had possession as the whistle was blown.

“Obviously, we’d like to generate more offence, but I like the opportunities we’re giving ourselves right now. And, also, we are facing a goalkeeper who is really on fire,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie.

“It’s a best-of-five series. We must turn the pages of these last two games, learn what there is to learn and move forward. And I would say that even between the first and second game, we got better in terms of understanding how to play overtime, just a little bit better. I think that’s why the overtime lasted so long. We will continue to work to ensure that our players recover. And you know we have a very important game coming up in Boston.”

Game 3 is Tuesday at Tsongas Center in Boston (7 p.m., TSN3, RDS2, YouTube), and if necessary, Game 4 on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN3, TSN5, RDS, YouTube). If Montreal manages to win both and tie the series, they return for a deciding Game 5 on May 19 in Laval (7 p.m., TSN1, TSN4, RDS, YouTube).

“I think all year we’ve seen this sport go from something good to something great,” said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel. “To the people present in the stands, we gave them what they came for: speed, strength, playing pieces, shots.

“These women are great hockey players, but more importantly, great human beings. I’m grateful to my team for having such an incredible group. We saw two phenomenal hockey teams face off in the playoffs and that’s what we’re all looking for.”