TORONTO — Bring on the Lightning.
That’s what's left — and ahead — for the Bruins, after they shrugged off a largely moribund second period to dust the Maple Leafs on Thursday night 3-1 in a crucial Game 4 at the stuffy Air Canada Centre.
If Toronto couldn’t win a make-or-break game at home and with Patrice Bergeron a late scratch due to an upper-body injury, there’s no way the Maple Leafs are winning the next three games (two at TD Garden) to upset the Bruins.
"When Bergeron didn’t play tonight, you’re set up pretty good," admitted Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "You’ve got to find a way to win. This is in our building, you’ve got to win. ... We didn’t take advantage of it. That’s on us."
Then there's the case of missing superstar Auston Matthews, who had a minus-2 performance on Thursday and now has one goal (when he came off the bench mid-shift in Game 3) and is a minus-4 for the series. Even his coach took at poke at Matthews, who has shrunk from the spotlight when this city, working on 51 years of Cup-less springs, desperately wanted something to believe in.
"I'm assuming that he thought he was going to come tonight and dominate the game; that's what I thought," Babcock said. "I thought the same with (William Nylander). That didn't happen.
"There’s regular-season competitiveness and first-round Stanley Cup competitiveness."
Yikes.
Yeah, we're supposed to be worried about that group doing the improbable against the Spoked B's. Sure...
Look, if it happens — yes, I remember 2010 against the Flyers — it would be a choke of epic proportions. And I have a hard time seeing Bruce Cassidy (aka Mr. RightButtonPusher) presiding over that kind of debacle.
So, now, it’s not a matter of if but when will see the expected titanic matchup between the two best teams in the East this season. Both the Lightning and Bruins lead their respective series 3-1 and play again Saturday. Tampa Bay hosts the Devils at 3 p.m., while the Bruins look to finish off the Leafs at 8 p.m. on Hockey Night in Canada.
Expect the Bruins faithful to be David Puddy-esque Devils fans on Saturday afternoon. They'd like nothing better than the Lightning to be extended by the plucky men in red while the Bruins wrap things up at home, and then heal up (Bergeron) and rest some tired old bones (Zdeno Chara played a game-high 26:43 in Game 4) before taking on arguably the most talented team in the league.
But, remember, the Bruins won the first three games of the season series against Tampa Bay before dropping the final matchup on the road when the Bruins were in "Wake Us When The Playoffs Start" mode.
So, yes, the Lightning may have studs like Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, Tyler Johnson, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh (among many others), and Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, but the Bruins have had Tampa's number all season. We'll have to see if the Bruins' season-ending loss to the Panthers — which gave the Lightning home-ice advantage — ends up meaning anything.
But there will plenty of time to dissect that series — which should have been the Eastern Conference final if it wasn't for this wacky divisional format — once the Bruins wrap this up on Saturday night.
For now, we need to give the Bruins a ton of respect for the professional win they executed on Thursday night.
If there's any stat that shows the difference between a Cup contender like the Bruins and the not-ready-for-primetime group from Toronto (it may have some young talent, but there's some aging deadwood that needs to be shed, so they're still a ways off), it's this one:
Blocked Shots — Boston 27, Toronto 9.
It's a stat that's all about grit and general want-to. You think many of those guys want to put their body in front of frozen vulcanized rubber because they enjoy it? Heck no. They do it because those little plays make all the difference in important games. And this one, which was the difference between going home up 3-1 with a chance to clinch and tied 2-2 looking at a fight to the death, was huge.
No play better illustrated the advantage the Bruins have over the Leafs in determination than when David Krejci, who largely wasn't all that on his game, stepped in front of a shot in his own defensive zone from Toronto defensemen Travis Dermott with 15:50 left and the Bruins holding a precarious 2-1 lead, took the puck off his left leg and then dashed the other way with a 2-on-1 break. Krejci fed Jake DeBrusk who buried the puck into the back of the net, along with all the hopes of the blue-clad faithful.
JAKE DEBRUSK! THE BRUINS DOUBLE THEIR LEAD!#NHLBruins 3 - 1 #TMLTalk
(@NHLBruins Lead Series 2-1) pic.twitter.com/TKrcacwGiT
— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) April 20, 2018