David Pastrnak, Bruins remain confident they will force a Game 7
The Boston Bruins are on death’s door.
It’s hardly the outcome many projected for a Boston team that’s been historically dominant with home-ice advantage against the Maple Leafs, but a loss in Sunday’s Game 6 in Toronto would officially bounce from the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But the Black and Gold’s locker room, which was as silent as it was angry on Friday night, remains hopeful that they’ll return back to Boston for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday night.
“Well, we won there already, so we know what we need to do,” Pastrnak said of Sunday’s Game 6 in Toronto. “[Friday] wasn’t our best game, and we know we’ve got better. So, we’re pretty confident that we can bring it back home, and we will.”
“I feel like we have a really good team here,” David Krejci offered. “We knew it was going to be a tough series going in. Probably thought it was going to go for Game 6 back to Toronto, maybe with a different outcome, but at the same time, it’s just one game, right? One game at a time and got to get a win and come back for Game 7.”
But it’s obvious that the B’s best are going to need to be that and more should the Bruins bring this series back home.
Through five games, Brad Marchand has totaled just two goals on 17 shots, Patrice Bergeron has lost the one-on-one matchup against both Auston Matthews and John Tavares, and Pastrnak has struggled mightily outside of a two-goal Game 4 effort.
For a Big Three that carried the Bruins throughout the regular season, it’s simply not enough.
“It’s going to be a battle again,” Marchand said of Sunday’s Game 6 at Scotiabank Arena. “We’re fighting for our lives, so we’ve shown character all year, and hopefully that shows up here next game. It’s a tough building to play in.
“They’re obviously feeling good about themselves, so it’s going to be a battle out there, and we’re going to have to be ready to compete and play our best game, because you know they’re going t o bring their best game.”
As for what needs to improve, Pastrnak laid it out pretty simply.
“The only thing I remember was, after the first period, we had six shots,” Pastrnak recalled. “Put more pucks on their goalie. We scored five [in Game 4], so we’ve got to make sure we shoot everything to the net and recover pucks and just a little bit more offense.”
