Felger & Mazz: The Bruins needed this win

The Boston Bruins survived elimination on Saturday night in overtime against the Toronto Maple Leafs in game 7. On Monday's Felger and Mazz, the guys discussed how important it was that the Bruins pulled out a win and didn't blow a 3-1 lead for the second consecutive season.

How important was this win for the Bruins?

Felger: What a win. Oh my God, did they need that win? Oh, God, they needed that win so bad.

Jim Murray: That back to back years of blowing three one leads, hadthey done that, that's a devastating stat.

Felger: The bloodbath and just the reputation which becomes reality. It becomes your identity. It's just their identity is losers. Jokers. Can't get out of their own way. Like that just becomes them. And again, like, let's see what happens here. Maybe we'll be saying this in two weeks, but oh my God, if they lose that game you know what that is. It's like Oh, wow did they need that one! That was massive. Massive. And it's almost more of a relief than it is a joy. I'm still against, overtime hockey, I'll tell you that. But it's more of a relief than it is a celebration. I don't know how you feel about it, but I think like for the organization, it's like, "oh, my God, Thank God".

Jim Murray: They would have become the butt of jokes in all of sports. Because again, that have never happened in the history of organized sports in this country. That's insane.

Mazz: It is. It's unbelievable

Jim Murray: It's like you become like a munson. "Oh, we pulled a munson. Well, you pulled a Bruins. You went three one back to back. You blew it again. You pulled a Bruins". That's their thing that they would have owned. That would have been horrible.

Mazz: And it's bad enough to do it once.....

Jim Murray: Back to back years?

Mazz: No that means you have a skill for it.

Felger: It means that's who you are.

Jim Murray: It's called "Bruins".

Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

David Pastrnak got the headlines, but Hampus Lindholm was the real hero of Game 7 for the Bruins on Saturday night.

And based on the last few seasons, he may be one of the biggest keys if the Bruins are to advance any further in this postseason.

An oversimplification? Perhaps, but the numbers are what they are since Lindholm joined the Bruins during the 2021-22 season. The Bruins were facing a third consecutive first-round exit (to Carolina, Florida and then Toronto) before rallying for Saturday's 2-1 in overtime over the Maple Leafs. And as flashy as Pastrnak's finish was against Toronto netminder Ilya Samsonov, the play was triggered by Lindholm's brilliant pass off the corner boards once he saw Pastrnak propel himself on the right wing like a human windup toy.

“I’ve played with him for a long enough time to know that I can see when he swings like that, and I know [the Leafs] doing like three across there, so it’s try to get [the puck] behind them," Lindholm explained to the media. "I got a good bounce there and obviously Pasta did his magic."

But that hardly means Lindholm should be overlooked.

After all, the Bruins were only in overtime because Lindholm immediately tied the game at 1-1 after the Bruins fell behind 1-0 roughly halfway through the third period.

For Lindholm, the goal was his first career postseason strike for the Bruins in 18 career postseason games, which is only part of the story. Entering this postseason, Lindholm was 0-0-0 in 11 postseason games for the Bruins, a scoreless string that evaporated when he secured an assist in Game 1.

But there is also this: Entering the second-round series (and rematch) with Florida tonight, Lindholm (who is typically paired with Brandon Carlo) has been a team-best plus-6 in postseason play since joining the Bruins during the `21-22 season. No other player on the Boston roster has been better than plus-2.

A look at Lindholm's game-, series- and potentially narrative-altering plays in Game 7 against the Leafs: