Where will the Game 7 ghosts be sitting?
Leafs not looking back, but memories of past failures linger
TORONTO — Connor Brown and the Maple Leafs sent all the right messages ahead of Game 7 last year.
He insists this time they actually mean it.
Toronto heads into the finale of a back-and-forth Eastern Conference quarterfinal with the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night with a firm belief. Ghosts of past playoff failures, however, still linger.
The Leafs led the Bruins 4-3 through 40 minutes of Game 7 at TD Garden some 12 months ago only to crash and burn in a
7-4 loss.
And while just two players — Jake Gardiner and the suspended Nazem Kadri — remain from an even bigger collapse in Boston in 2013, many Toronto fans are still scarred from a meltdown that saw the Bruins become the first team in National Hockey League history to win a Game 7 after trailing by three goals in the third period.
Up 3-2 in this year’s first-round series, Toronto had a chance to finish Boston off in Game 6 at home on Sunday. The Leafs came out swinging, but the Bruins responded and kept their opponent at bay long enough to force another winner-take-all affair.
“We’re a very confident group,” Brown said postgame in an empty Leafs locker-room. “We were saying it all last year, but now we really believe it to our core.
“We feel as if we’re a group that can go deep.”
Despite the most recent setback, Toronto has reason to be optimistic.
While last year’s series was close in that it went the distance, the teams are more evenly matched in 2019. Neither side has managed to win consecutive games — Toronto trailed 2-0 and 3-1 last spring — the Leafs have outscored the Bruins 13-11 at even strength, own a slight edge in puck possession at five-on-five and have outhit the Bruins 217-206.
Toronto has already won twice at TD Garden, including a disciplined, patient 2-1 victory in Game 5 where the Leafs had to wait until midway through the third period to break a 0-0 tie.
“We know how they play, they know how we play,” Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “It really comes down to the commitment to do it right.”
One area where the Bruins have had a clear advantage is on the man advantage.
Third overall in the NHL during the regular season, Boston is 7-for-16 on the power play in the series compared to Toronto’s three goals on 14 chances.
That disparity was the difference in a Game 6 where the Leafs scored early only to watch as the Bruins struck twice up a man, although the first came off a scrambled draw in the offensive zone.
Toronto found some answers in neutralizing Boston on three opportunities in Game 5 and will need a similar effort in Game 7 as the franchise looks to advance to the second round for the first time since 2004.
“We understand what they do,” Brown said. “It’s time for us to stop having the breakdowns.”
The Leafs have a different look this time around following the free-agent acquisition of centre John Tavares, the trade for defenceman Jake Muzzin and the continued growth of Auston Matthews, who has five goals in his past four games, and
Mitch Marner.
Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen, meanwhile, owns a .925 save percentage after being one of the weak links in the chain last year.
“It’s a new set of circumstances,” Tavares said. “It’s a lot of guys who haven’t been here, including myself.”
“I’m not a big believer of living in the past,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock added. “I don’t carry a lot of stuff around from the past at all.”
Boston has also made changes, but a battle-tested core remains the backbone of their lineup. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask have won the Stanley Cup and been to another.