Bruins, Leafs stuck together

Trades, blowouts intertwine two clubs

All these years of waiting, noses pressed up against the wrong side of the glass, and it had to be the Boston Bruins. The Toronto Maple Leafs were out of the playoffs for close to a decade, and their most pernicious tormentors during that time was Boston, always Boston. It was during the 8-0 loss in March last season — as opposed to the 7-0 loss, which had come in November — that Randy Carlyle says he really figured out how badly his team needed to change.

“Terrible, terrible,” Carlyle said in advance of Game 1 in Boston Wednesday night. “That was part of us recognizing as a coaching staff and management that things had to change for our group, that we couldn’t afford to be embarrassed at that level … I think we were [six] points out of a playoff spot at that point. We felt like it went to the core of what we were about.

“And it was an eye-opener for us. Those are things that are memories. [Do they leave] scars? You learn to deal with those things and move on, because you can’t change what happened. All you can do is prepare for it not to happen again.”

Those games will not be repeated verbatim — as Dion Phaneuf puts it, Zen-like: “The past is in the past right now, to be completely honest with you” — but this is a fascinating moment for the Leafs organization. They won four of six against Boston in 2011, the year the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, but the Bruins have been their personal bully for years, even if the Leafs got to keep their lunch money.

And they are intertwined. Toronto traded goaltender Tuukka Rask to the Bruins in 2006 for the magic beans of Andrew Raycroft, and the Phil Kessel trade in 2009 was the defining moment of Brian Burke’s since-extinguished tenure. Boston is tied to Toronto, and Toronto is tied to Boston.

“Another time we play them,” Kessel said. “Nothing changes, right? We’re going to have to go in there, they’re a great team, we’re going to have to battle.”

He’s not right that nothing changes, or at least, not yet. After a season in which the Leafs managed to outperform their statistical fundamentals, and the Bruins rode a hot start and coasted in, both teams have a chance to prove something about themselves to themselves. To the other guys, too, but that’s a bonus.

“We feel like we can go into any building and have a chance for success, and I don’t know if we could say that before,” Carlyle said.

“In this league, any team can beat any other team on any night,” says Toronto winger James van Riemsdyk, who was on the Philadelphia team that came back from an 0-3 deficit in 2010 to beat Boston.

“So I me n, it’s not like there’s te ms when you’re you’re trying to pl y the Soviets in 1980,” v n Riemsdyk

dded, “nd you’re Te m USA.”

kessel spoke to the medi Tuesd y fter declining to do so Mond y, which shouldn’t h ve been surprise since he is perh ps the le st comfort

ble st r pl yer nybody h s ever seen when it comes to public spe king. He doesn’t like it, nd it’s h rd to bl me

guy for not liking to t lk to people. T lk to enough people,

nd you’ ll h ve n inkling how he feels.

“Some of the stuff ’s kind of funny, like people m king big de l bout him not w nting to t lk,” v n Riemsdyk s id. “He doesn’t t lk when he’s scoring go ls, he doesn’t t lk when he’s not scoring go ls. Th t’s just how he is, nd I dunno. He’s obviously good pl yer.”

It w s t ctic l error, though, bec use it llowed people to puff on bout how kessel w s sc red of Boston, where he pl yed for two ye rs, nd g inst whom he h s been regul rly devoured by Zdeno Ch r nd P trice Bergeron in the 22 g mes since the tr de. This dovet iled nicely with the ide th t the Le fs h ve no ch nce, which is only p rtly b sed on the f ct th t they h ve pl yed some heels-onthe-edge-of-the-cliff hockey for bout month. It’s Boston. Boston wins.

This ll ignores few things. One, kessel doesn’t like t lking nytime, nd being e ten live by Bergeron

nd Ch r is not likely fe rrel ted. Two, the Bruins h ve been drifting iceberg for ne rly two months now, nd Mond y their gener lm nger, Peter Chi relli, spent conference c ll with the medi wondering loud wh t the hell they would do when the post-se son beg n.

“I would hope there’s n element to their ch r cter, with the experience th t they h ve, th t they’re going to step up their pl y,” Chi relli told reporters. “I see th t coming little bit in the l st three g mes. I’ve seen snippets of it here, m inly from the emotion l nd physic l viewpoint.

“But you c n’t turn it on nd off like switch. you c n’t just expect to h ve success fter not performing t cert in level. We’ ll cert inly see.”

And this series will not define the leg cy of the kessel tr de, or of kessel; it will just be piece of it. The Le fs re

n underdog, but this is not the Boston th t be t them 8-0. Ch rw s on the ice for Fr zer McL ren go l this ye r, for goodness s kes; things h ppen. Bruins winger J romir J gr told reporters the other d y in the pl yoffs, “you c n be bigger hero or you c n be bigger zero.” It’s not th t zero sum of g me, or t le st it shouldn’t be. either w y, the Le fs h ve ch nce, nd th t be ts every single thing th th sh ppened to them over the p st nine ye rs. And before the g mes re ctu lly pl yed, everyone c n be pretty Zen

bout it. According to the Bruins’ offici l Twitter ccount, Mil n Lucic’s pre-pl yoffs Zen ko n w s, “We know we need to come out in G me 1 the w y we need to know how to pl y.”

Th t goes for the Le Wh tever it me ns.

fs, too.

Ison

g

in t is window se in V ncouver.

If the C nucks’ m rketing dep rtment were on its toes, it would h ve m - jor sponsorship de l with Jeld-Wen, or Pell . Surely Bill G tes would do Windows commerci ls on the big scorebo rd, m ybe even own the te m. He could prob bly fford it.

Window se son is every spring for the l st two or three — th t time of ye r when the V ncouver C nucks’ core group is reminded of its dv ncing ye rs nd dvised to win the St nley Cup now, before the prime of Henrik nd d niel Sedin h s expired nd the good times follow these m gic l twins over the f r side of the hill nd the window of opportunity sl ms shut on everyone’s fingers.

There re those in the room who would r ther not discuss it.

kevin Bieks , for one, like some rec lcitr nt j nitor, s ys, in effect: “I don’t do windows.”

For one thing, it’s too f r in the future, he s id Tuesd y, when wh t re lly needs to be looked fter is G me 1 on Wednesd y g inst the S n Jose Sh rks, nd then G me 2, nd eventu lly trying to get through the first round — nd then, m ybe, we’ll t lk bout windows. And of course, he’s right. “I think l st ye r we kind of overlooked our first-round opponent little bit — not too much, but just enough,” s id the most indispens ble piece of the C nucks defence. “And I think we’re not m king th t mist ke this ye r.”

The Sedins, though, re not b shful bout ddressing