BRIGHTON – The Boston Bruins have been in this exact situation in the not-too-distant past as they head into Tuesday night’s Game 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden.
It was just a year ago the B’s held a 3-to-1 lead over the Florida Panthers in their best-of-seven series headed into a Game 5 on home ice. That was a memorable game where an injured Patrice Bergeron returned to the series after missing the first four games and Brad Marchand failed in an attempt to close out the series with a breakaway chance at the end of the third period.
As it turned out was probably Boston’s best opportunity to close out the series against Florida before losing three straight games to the Panthers in the seven-game series. It’s pretty difficult to view the Maple Leafs pulling the same kind of turnaround that Florida engineered after watching the Leafs' players bicker on the bench while their special teams’ units have been an absolute abomination in the first four games.
But the B’s players have also learned that earning that fourth elimination win in any playoff series is the most difficult one to lock down.
“You always learn from last year, the year before, and the year before. You learn from every playoff run you’ve been on,” said Charlie Coyle, who has two assists in four postseason games while mostly playing a shutdown role during 5-on-5 play. “That’s why having veterans on your team, guys that have been around, guys who have won, guys who have lost…it’s great to have those people who have experienced the ups and the downs and how to ride that and learn from it.
“I think smart hockey players usually do learn from the past, whether you win or lose. You always carry that with you, put your best foot forward. I think we know what to do and how we want to play. We just focus on that.”
All the signs point toward the B’s getting a good result with Auston Matthews missing Leafs practice in preparation for Game 5 after being pulled from Game 4 with an illness, and Jeremy Swayman again getting the starting nod against a Maple Leafs' team after building a 6-0-0 record against them this season. But one would expect some kind of pride response from players like Mitch Marner after getting called out nationally for his performance in the series, and from a Maple Leafs group generally speaking that is going to face changes in the offseason if they can’t show something, anything in this desperation situation.
“Teams got their back against the wall and they’re going to give everything they can,” said Coyle. “We’re expecting their best game. That’s something we want to prepare for and be ready for. But right back at it. We want to show them our best. We know we’re capable of playing even better than we have been.
“We can tighten some things up, hone in on our details and our compete, all that good stuff that has brought us success so far. We want to keep on that and keep upping it as well.”
B’s bench boss Jim Montgomery harkened to Bill Belichick and the old Patriots Way given all of the noise coming out of Toronto right now regarding this underachieving Maple Leafs bunch that continues to show they don’t have the right stuff as currently constituted.
“Well, to steal a line from Bill Belichick. The most important thing is we eliminate outside noise, and we just focus on Toronto,” said Montgomery. “We focus on what's at hand Tuesday. Staying in the moment, focusing on our process that drives results. That's where our mindset needs to be and hopefully that's part of the experience we've learned from last year.”
Montgomery added that he “thinks the experience of last year will help this year”, but it isn’t something the Bruins talked about as a group as they prepare for their first elimination chance in this series. That’s just as well with so many young players like Mason Lohrei, Johnny Beecher and Parker Wotherspoon – and Swayman, actually, as the starting goalie -- going through this for the first time in the playoffs, but there should be no lack of urgency for the rest of the Black and Gold group ready to atone for what happened to them in the first round of the playoffs last season.