It boggles the mind to think about this, but the Boston Bruins could be the first team in major professional sports history to blow 3-to-1 leads in back-to-back postseasons.
Will the Bruins make history? 😅 pic.twitter.com/M9a7Mjkw63
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 3, 2024
After frittering away a 3-to-1 lead in last postseason’s first-round exit to the Florida Panthers, the Bruins are again facing a Game 7 scenario against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night after dropping two straight chances to close out Toronto with defeats in both Game 5 and Game 6. The latest setback was a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Leafs in Game 6 at the Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night.
The Bruins have now lost six straight possible closeout games in the Stanley Cup playoffs, including all five with current B’s head coach Jim Montgomery at the helm guiding the Black and Gold. The Bruins once again got off to a subpar start in Thursday night’s game with just a single measly shot on net in the first period while getting outshot by a 12-1 margin, before eventually falling behind in the closing minute of the second period on a William Nylander strike that deflected off Charlie McAvoy into the B’s net.
“It’s unacceptable, our start again. We need to find a way to start on time and we’ve just got to be better,” said Montgomery. “Toronto is starting on time, they’re getting the advantage and the momentum and then I thought in the last 30 minutes we pushed back really well, but it shouldn’t take that long.
“We’re not living in the past and we’re not living in the future either. We’re living in the present. Right now, we’re not happy with our game and we’re going to get ready for Game 7. We were a much better hockey team tonight than we were in Game 5. I didn’t recognize the hockey team that I saw in Game 5. The last 30 minutes tonight I recognized the team and we’re going to build off that.”
Nylander scored both goals for the Leafs in the victory that pushed things to a winner-take-all Game 7 this weekend, and underscored how Toronto’s star players are rising to the occasion while Boston’s best players aren’t meeting the moment right now. David Pastrnak has just two goals and four points in six playoff games against the Leafs and was kept off the board in Game 7 while getting more shot attempts blocked (5) than he did actually managed to get on the net (4).
It hasn’t been a memorable series for Pastrnak to this point, and that’s a credit to the Maple Leafs defenders and a John Tavares line that has been locked up with them all playoff series long. But it’s also about one of the NHL’s best game-breakers simply not doing enough in this series to make plays and provide offense for his team during the 5-on-5 play where they need him to be a difference-maker.
“I maybe don’t get enough shots. Maybe I need a little more of a shooter’s mentality. Usually that always helps me,” said Pastrnak, when asked what he needs to do to get his offense going in this series. “We obviously need to create more offense. We’ve only had one goal in [the last] two games, so we definitely need to score some goals.
“We don’t spend enough time in the offensive zone. We need to be stronger on the puck in the offensive zone to create more possession time, and don’t try to score so much right away off the rush.”
Generally speaking, the Bruins aren’t doing enough as a team to generate offense at a very high level. They’re missing wide-open teammates on possible passing plays, they’re trying to force pucks to the net rather than making skill-based scoring plays and they’re simply not making Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll work hard enough. But to their head coach, a lot of it comes down to the Bruins' star players rising to the occasion and making something happen in the playoffs like they did so many times during the regular season.
"Your best players need to be your best players this time of year. I think the effort is tremendous,” said Montgomery. “They need to come through with big-time plays in big-time moments. [Brad] Marchand has done that in the series. Pasta needs to step up.
“He needs to be the dominant player that we’re used to, you know? He’s doing it in flurries, but he’s not doing it as consistently as he did during the regular season. His linemates need to help him too. We’re not as good of an offensive team as we were during the regular season, but neither is Toronto. We’ve got to find a way, we’ve got to push through, and we’ve got to dig in.”
But the bottom line is that it would be very natural to feel like the Bruins are in trouble facing a Game 7 scenario against the Maple Leafs on home ice. All the pressure is on the B’s to not be “that team” that essentially chokes away a pair of commanding leads in playoff series and go down in history as a group incapable of closing opponents out in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That doesn’t even get into the long-term ramifications facing the coaches and players if the Bruins once again fizzle out in the first round after building up a big lead that they eventually choked away.
That’s something they are trying to block out of their mind right now facing a do-or-die Game 7 where their playoff lives are finally on the line.
“At the end of the day, none of it matters. We have to regroup and get excited for the next one,” said Marchand. “It doesn’t matter how you get there because we’re there. This is where heroes are built and made, so you’ve got to be excited about a Game 7.”
Hopefully the Bruins are excited for the Game 7 opportunity and that translates into them actually being ready to play from the opening puck drop. But there aren’t many people around the Bruins that could say they are genuinely excited about now being in this Game 7 spot after completely blowing two chances to close this series out against an underwhelming Leafs team before it even got to this point.