Memories of 2013 implosion can’t haunt new crop of Leafs
Five years after their Game 7 collapse on Causeway Street, a rematch is brewin’ for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Still, settling an old score with the Boston Bruins does not appeal to these Leafs as much as getting further down the playoff road. Avenging that 2013 first round would be just one stage of a two-month journey.
Since last year when they went in cold against the Washington Capitals, the fresh-faced Leafs have some playoff scars and have added some veterans, making them as capable as any team to come out of the East, whether facing Boston first or the Tampa Bay Lightning later.
“The conversation the guys have had among themselves went just like that,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said before Boston lost 4-2 to the Florida Panthers on Sunday, setting up Game 1 with the Leafs at TD Garden on Thursday. “We have confidence no matter who we are playing because we know we have to beat multiple teams to achieve the goal. We’re prepared to do whatever it takes.”
The Leafs have been looking at the first round with a pick-your-poison perspective for weeks now, no doubt grumbling about a playoff system that makes them open on the road despite finishing with a franchise-record 105 points. Boston ended up with 112, and Tampa Bay 113.
Nazem Kadri was asked if that makes the Leafs true underdogs. Toronto won the season series with Boston 3-1, all three victories earned without forward Auston Matthews.
“It’s possible,” Kadri said. “We’re playing a team that’s ahead of us, but we don’t see it that way. I feel like we can play with everybody in the league and I think we’ve proven that. It’s important we get a good start and starting on the road, it’s going to be exciting.
“Everyone knows what to expect. Up to Game 1 and Game 2, we know how hostile it’s going to be.”
Toronto has lost Game 1 of the only two series the team has played the past five years. But that was then, and this is now.
“It’s a lot of the same faces, but a bit more mature,” Rielly said. “It’s hard to put a value on the experience a young player can gain over the course of a sixgame series.”
Toronto has won just one post-season set in five tries since its run to the 2002 conference final. Kadri, Rielly, Jake Gardiner, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk have all been on the wrong end of the handshake line in their two trips.
“With maturity, you start to gain that sense of composure, whatever you may need — up a goal, defending a lead or down a goal,” Kadri said. “This won’t be easy, but that’s what winning the Cup is all about, getting through different obstacles, and the first round is definitely going to be one of them.”