Once in complete control, Bruins now entering great unknown of another Game 7
There’s no way the Bruins are gonna do this again, right?
It’s honestly the one thought I’ve had on my mind all day long. It crept into my mind after Game 5’s overtime loss, and it’s been screaming around in my brain since the final horn sounded on Game 6.
It was just a week ago the Bruins had the Maple Leafs core players arguing on the benches in plain sight, with William Nylander clearly telling a teammate to “stop f–king crying, bro.” You had Auston Matthews removed from the game due to an injury suffered while playing through an illness. On the ropes, Toronto refused to stop taking offensive-zone penalties, and penalties at the worst time. They even turned to a goaltender who finished the regular season with an .890 save percentage over his final 10 appearances, and blew a 2-0 lead with five straight goals allowed in his final outing of the regular season slate.
They wouldn’t say it, but the play of the Maple Leafs told you that were simply dying to quit on this season and go home. That was screaming you in the face when Matthews, who scored 69 goals during the regular season, would miss both Games 5 and 6, and the Leafs were referencing what happened in 2023 publicly in an attempt to spark themselves. (It was a bit like 2011 Peter Laviolette saying that the Flyers had the Bruins right where they wanted them when they were down 3-0 in their second-round series once again.) But the B’s instead let them off the hook with two downright putrid starts and disjointed efforts (perhaps best embodied by a historically bad one-shot opening period in Game 6) that have taken them from the driver’s seat to the pressure-packed unknown of a Game 7 in Boston.
For the Bruins, this newest bout of uncertainty and stomachaches that’ll only intensify between now and Saturday’s 8 p.m. puck drop on Boston ice largely comes back to the mystifying absence of what you assumed would be a certainty in both Games 5 and 6.
Ahead of Game 5, Montgomery said that the Garden would be rocking and he wanted his team to be rocking because of it. Instead, the Bruins put forth a downright horrible start.
They had two shots in the opening period, and had a no-shot power-play opportunity when given an early-period chance to take control and go for the kill. They would, of course, ultimately lose that game less than three minutes into overtime after a third period of near-strikes. Speaking in between Games 5 and 6, Montgomery said that he was still pissed off about how they started Game 5, and that he would remain pissed off until Game 6. And then the team had an even worse start.
It was downright confounding and had undeniable 2023 vibes. After repeatedly telling everybody that they had learned their lessons from a year ago (and even before that), the Bruins were making the same missteps they had in past failures. Even down to the practice portion of Boston’s schedule.
There’s no way the Bruins are gonna do this again, right?
As it stands right now, I honestly have no reason to tell you why you should be confident for Saturday’s Game 7. They are 0-5 in closeout games under head coach Jim Montgomery, and the second-year Bruins coach has given you no reason to feel like his team will snap out of it. The quotes are starting to ring hollow given what’s followed each and every time. They haven’t had a Game 7 win of any sort since 2019 against Toronto. They’ve dropped two of three home games in this series and they’ve looked bad, tight, and unprepared for the moment at home when the stakes are raised for, like, four years now.
There’s just no reason to feel good about Saturday other than you simply like the team.
And, listen, maybe this team has finally broken my brain for good. Perhaps the lingering damage of coming up small at home in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final remains. Same for what should’ve been a magical 2023 run coming undone in a span of 100 hours. But to continually come up flat when the stakes are raised — and to continually do so when you say the right things every. single. time. — leads to doubt. And that’s doubt on top of the natural uncertainty that comes with a Game 7.
This one also comes back down legacies, and I gotta say, I have no idea what to expect with that now hanging over this (mostly) new era of Bruins hockey for the first time.
The Bruins are coming into Saturday’s Game 7 looking to avoid becoming the first team in not just league history, but North American sports history, to blow a 3-1 series lead in back-to-back seasons. Montgomery is also looking to avoid becoming the first NHL coach in league history to coach a team that’s blown a 3-1 series lead in back-to-back seasons. In the first year of the Bergeron-Krejci era officially being behind the Bruins, this would be a downright disastrous start for what the organization wants to be the Charlie McAvoy-David Pastrnak era, with both players in their primes. The Bruins are in need of both players stepping up after some nightmarish performances in both Games 5 and 6, too.
How they respond to that pressure, complete with Montgomery directly calling Pastrnak out following Thursday’s loss, could set narratives, truthful or nonsensical, for years.
Saturday’s Game 7 also comes with one of their last living constants on the line.
No matter the Bruins’ problems or shortcomings, you could always count on the club beating the Maple Leafs and using them as a postseason launching pad. If that falls, and against what’s undeniably the worst (or most battered, at the very least) version of the Maple Leafs, that is a devastating development. Not only would the Leafs have slayed their dragon, but they would’ve done so in the most humiliating fashion for the Bruins to experience. There would be no more ‘It was 4-1’ or ‘Not today, Justin’ chirps coming out of Boston. It’d be akin to Yankee fans losing their ‘1918’ chants against the Red Sox.
Not all of this truly matters inside the walls of TD Garden, of course. I’m not sure that the death of a meme is going to keep people up at night. But the results of Saturday’s game certainly do. For a franchise that’s lauded their culture, the culture takes a hit if the same failures and no-shows continue to end their springtime pursuits. And with cap space and very few marriages in terms of long-term commitments on the books, everything would have to be on the table for the Bruins this season.
And for a franchise that’s routinely found new ways to make their fans throw their hands up and refuse to believe in the club no matter the team’s status or situation, the newest dilemma they’ve fallen into has Bruins fans begging for just the opposite of what they believe they’ll see.
There’s no way the Bruins are gonna do this again, right?