Here we go again: Bruins, Leafs in Game 7
GAME DAY: TORONTO AT BOSTON, 5 P.M.
BOSTON — No team in the long histories of the NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball has blown a 3-1 lead and lost a best-of-seven series in back-to-back post-seasons.
The Boston Bruins have put themselves in that conversation. They will play a Game 7 tonight against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs for the third time in seven years.
The Bruins won the previous two showdowns, including a similar situation in 2013, and the Leafs falling short at this time of year has become a rite of spring. But the pressure is on Boston after losing two in a row against a team that has been missing star forward Auston Mathews since late in Game 4.
“We all understand that in playoffs every game is a Game 7,” said goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who stopped 24 of 26 shots in the latest loss that pushed the Bruins to the brink. “That’s the intensity that we want to bring every night, and when we do get to an actual Game 7, it should be another day in the office for us because we prepared the right way, we’re expecting their best and we’re expecting our best.”
The Bruins are a year removed from setting league records for wins and points in a regular season, then going up 3-1 on the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers in the first round before losing in seven games.
“We’re not worrying about [last year],” said Jim Montgomery, the 2023 Jack Adams Award winner as coach of the year whose job could be in jeopardy if things go sideways again. “We’re not living in the past. We’re not living in the future, either. We’re living in the present. Right now we’re not happy with our game. We’re going to get ready for Game 7.”
Matthews, who missed the past two games with an undisclosed ailment, skated Friday and is making progress but there’s “no determination on his availability” for today, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said Friday. Matthews scored 69 goals during the season and had another against Boston.
One of the few players still around from the series between these teams 11 years ago, Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly, brushed off the notion that the onus has shifted from the Leafs to the Bruins.
“All bets are off in that regard,” Rielly said. “Both teams have high expectations. I don’t think that there’s one team that’s dealing with more pressure than the other.”