It was the day before Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators and practice was over for the Maple Leafs.
But not for Max Domi.
Beginning sometime in late February, Domi began taking part in the post-practice skills sessions John Tavares had been soldiering his way through all season with Patrick O’Sullivan, the former NHLer and current Leafs development coach. This was one of those days.
Domi worked on his passing. And — perhaps more importantly now with the benefit of hindsight — he worked on his shot.
(Jonas Siegel / The Athletic)
What was his focus in all this extra work?
“I can’t tell you,” Domi told The Athletic, grinning, over the weekend. “I would, but because it’s (the) playoffs I can’t. But yes, we are working on stuff for sure.”
That “stuff” paid off in the biggest possible way in Game 2.
Domi saved the Leafs from a potentially devastating unraveling — a 2-0 first-period lead squandered — when he beat Linus Ullmark from 28 feet with the overtime winner on Tuesday night. The goal gave the Leafs a 2-0 series lead.
THE HOMETOWN KID!!!@Rogers | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/nlN2THGWPb
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 23, 2025
It was Domi’s first ever overtime goal in the playoffs and the first playoff overtime win for Leafs fans to celebrate at home since Tyler Bozak scored in Game 3 of the first round against the Washington Capitals on April 17, 2017. It was the biggest moment to date in a 10-year NHL career.
“For him to have that moment in overtime here at home is extremely special for all of us,” Morgan Rielly said of Domi.
There must have been something serendipitous about Game 2: Domi froze Ullmark – and the clock – while wearing a microphone for NHL Productions that recorded his reaction, not to mention all the pandemonium that broke out around him.
The request made to the Leafs before the series was for Domi to be mic’d up during Game 1. He said his preference was to put it on for Tuesday’s game instead.
The rest is history.
Domi was in full deflection mode with the media after taking his turn as the first star. He didn’t want to accept much credit for what had unfolded, telling Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskus in his walkoff interview that he felt the goal was the result of a lucky break.
“Every night there’s a different hero in playoffs,” said Domi, sporting a coveted white “Hockey Night in Canada” towel around his neck. “It doesn’t really matter who scores as long as we get the win. Obviously it’s a great play by Benny.
“Shoot the puck, man, anything can happen.”
All of his teammates had already taken off their equipment and cleared from the main part of the home dressing room while Domi stood half-dressed in the entrance doing a second series of interviews with the NHL Productions crew.
Max Domi conducts another round of interviews, still half in game gear. (Chris Johnston / The Athletic)
Once those duties were completed, he clasped hands and exchanged pleasantries with Keith Pelley – the president and CEO of MLSE – and Leafs president Brendan Shanahan before letting out an audible exhale when he finally reached his locker stall.
Leafs equipment manager Bobby Hastings, one of the few remaining employees from his father Tie’s tenure with the organization, soon came by and the two shared a chuckle.
Eventually, Domi was brought to the podium in the interview room alongside Rielly, who had showered and changed into a sharp green suit. Domi sat beside him still wearing sweaty team-issued gear.
“I can’t imagine how he’s feeling,” said Rielly.
The shot Domi took to end the Senators’ comeback bid was just the kind of shot he had been endeavouring to improve with O’Sullivan, someone he says began working with four or five years ago.
A Toronto native and former Minnesota Wild draft pick, O’Sullivan put up 58 goals and 161 points across 334 games in the NHL, including a 22-goal, 53-point season for the Los Angeles Kings as a 22-year-old. “His ability to really understand what we see as players,” but also come at it from the perspective of a coach, “it’s rare,” Domi said.
“He’s a skill guy that made a lot of plays,” Domi went on. “And he also likes to study the game, so he can help you with whatever asset you want to work on. He’s awesome, man.”
It had been a bumpy second season for Domi with the Leafs.
After signing a four-year deal to return to the team last summer, Domi’s offensive output declined significantly from a year ago. He went more than 20 games without scoring on two separate occasions and finished with the fewest goals in a single season of his NHL career. He mostly struggled to lead a third line at centre. Somewhere along the way, it seemed, he decided to put in as much extra work as he could – never knowing how it might pay off.
On a game-day morning in March when no other players in the lineup that night were on the ice ahead of a matchup against the Colorado Avalanche, Domi was out there fine-tuning his shot from the slot with help from Denver Manderson, another member of the team’s player development crew.
“He works on his craft so much,” Mitch Marner said of Domi, a teammate dating back to their days together with the London Knights.
“He works hard,” added Leafs coach Craig Berube. “He’s always trying to improve and get better and work with people, skill guys and practice and stuff like that. I’m very happy for him to get a goal (like that).”
Like Brady Tkachuk of the Senators, Domi wasn’t just raised to be a hockey player. He was raised in hockey.
It would be difficult to find anyone working behind the scenes at Scotiabank Arena who doesn’t have a first-hand memory of him roaming the halls here as a kid. That circle includes Travis Green, who played alongside Tie Domi with the Leafs during the 2002 Battle of Ontario and throughout the season that followed it. Max Domi still refers to him as “Greenie” in interviews and the Senators coach graciously took a moment amid the disappointment of Tuesday’s loss to reflect on the way time wrapped around itself with Domi authoring a big moment for the Leafs.
“You could tell he was going to be a good hockey player from a young age,” said Green. “Obviously I know his dad well. I always like seeing him have success, but obviously not tonight.”
Domi occupies a stall inside the Leafs dressing room just inside the doors and to the right. He sits beside Scott Laughton, who only arrived in Toronto at the March 7 trade deadline from Philadelphia, but with whom he shares a long past. They took some of their first strides together on the ice at Canlan Sports in Oakville. This was in 1998.
“He was brutal when we were kids,” Laughton deadpanned. “He was shooting on the wrong net. We had to teach him a couple things – he was only three years old, so it’s understandable.”
All these years later, Laughton has come to appreciate the way Domi backs up teammates and fills whatever hole in the lineup is needed on any given night. He had a sense that Tuesday’s overtime winner might come off the stick of one of the team’s more blue-collar performers, although he expected it to be a “greasy” one.
He could only marvel at Domi’s release.
“It was awesome,” said Laughton. “What a move. It was electric. What a feeling.”
(Top photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)