Everyone breathe; Bruins won’t choke again against Leafs originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
It’s easy for me to say, like a recently parachuted Johny Tomase into the playoffs, and ask leading questions like, “Has Parker Wotherspoon really been with the Bruins all year?” but all must expire. History will not repeat itself.
The hardcore no doubt slept like bad babies on Tuesday night after watching the B’s squander another chance to ice a series in overtime. Toronto’s 2-1 victory evoked memories of Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe and last year’s Florida Panthers, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to turn the greatest regular season in NHL history into a bloody footnote . If you’ve been wondering about the persistent ringing in your ears ever since, don’t worry, it will never go away.
So I feel an inclination toward a desperate prophecy after Tuesday’s shockingly lackadaisical defeat. The Bruins did it to us last year and they’re about to do it again. It’s classic PTSD.
Except they won’t.
Take it from someone who only invested casually. The Leafs have a much sadder playoff legacy than the Bruins, and Toronto must face a relentlessly hostile environment at home where locals still act like Red Sox fans circa 1919-2003, just waiting to meet their macabre end . No crowd goes from optimism to hopeless despair as quickly as the Scotiabank Arena.
Toronto is not Florida. Turns out the eighth-ranked Panthers were legit. They advanced quickly through the conference before falling to the Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final, and came back this year with 110 points and a division title.
The Leafs were… fine. They scored a lot, but their goalkeeping was mediocre and their penalties were terrible, especially in the final stretch. And while the Panthers added key pieces late last season and in the playoffs that helped them climb above eighth place — they can’t beat the Bruins without center Sam Bennett and winger Anthony Duclair — the Leafs have been subtracting.
Leading scorers Auston Matthews and William Nylander have combined to miss one game all season and have been sidelined four times (three for Nylander, one for Matthews) this series. Nylander remains scoreless. Matthews battled illnesses and a mystery illness, because hockey makes Bill Belichick look like a gossip when it comes to injuries; only after the season ended did we receive news about the multiple broken ribs, fractured vertebrae and lacerated kidneys, until then classified as “upper body”.
The playoffs are about horses. The Leafs certainly outscored the Bruins in Game 5, and that’s a problem, but they have struggled to generate offense for most of the series without a healthy Matthews, the league’s first leading scorer with 69 goals since Mario Lemieux.
Even if they rediscover their scoring touch, we haven’t even mentioned the biggest X-factor, which is goaltending.
A year ago, Linus Ullmark looked like he was playing on one leg, and Montgomery was embarrassed to have stuck with him for so long. The Bruins surrendered 11 goals to Florida in Games 5 and 6 before Montgomery finally gave Swayman the lead, and no pressure, kid, but please go out there and win Game 7.
This time, Swayman looks like the best goalie in the world. He stoned the Leafs repeatedly on Tuesday, losing to them for the first time all year. He has yet to allow Toronto to score more than two goals in that span. He’s not a collapse candidate like Ullmark was, and although Boston College product Joseph Woll played much better in Game 5 than Toronto starter Ilya Samsonov did in Games 1-4, we’re still talking about a goaltender with just three playoff appearances to his name.
Advantage, Bruins.
So to recap, the Leafs are suffocating dogs with injured stars who have only escaped the first round once in the last 20 years. If they lose again, head coach Sheldon Keefe will almost certainly be fired, so there’s a boss in the hot seat too, although I suppose the same could be said for Bruins counterpart Jim Montgomery.
This is not a team I would fear beating three times in a row, including two in Boston. The Bruins will need to get their heads out of the landing gear in Game 6 and stop skating like they’re afraid of falling through the ice to avoid another meltdown, but they won’t have to do it alone.
It’s the damn Leafs, so take a deep breath. Everything will be alright. I may have recently learned my Jesper Boqvist from my Justin Brazeau, but I know this and it is more than enough.
