BOSTON — The sheer joy of a Game 7 overtime triumph, followed in short order by the stark reality of another playoff series starting on the road less than 48 hours later.
This is the Stanley Cup playoffs grind. It is not for the faint of heart, nor for the weary and weak. The Boston Bruins are well aware of this, and they’ll be put to the test under such a scenario starting Monday night.
Not long after adding another voluminous chapter to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ gargantuan book of Postseason Heartbreak — thanks to a David Pastrnak backhand goal 1:54 into overtime Saturday night at TD Garden, giving his squad a 2-1 series clinching victory — the Bruins were forced to think about what lay ahead vs. the Florida Panthers while still celebrating the moment at hand.
Captain Brad Marchand knows and acknowledges this as well as anyone in the NHL. Saturday’s contest was his 12th Game 7, and dating back to his rookie season in 2010-11 he’s experienced both the ebullience of winning and moving on, and the disenchantment of an abrupt ending to a season.
The short rest and quick refocusing that a Game 7 victory and subsequent new playoff foe brings, he said, is a minor inconvenience and nothing more.
“The toughest part about this game and the transition between this game and the next series is we’re obviously riding a big high, but we have to completely forget about it,” he said. “But that’s the great thing about the playoffs; we earned another four games.
“Now we have to completely flip the script and get prepared again. All the best teams come this time of year are able to forget that game (7) the next day … it’s about the next one.”
Games 1 and 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Panthers will be played at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise Monday and Wednesday. It returns to TD Garden for Games 3 and 4 Friday and Sunday.
Florida is rested and has been waiting for its second round opponent since dispatching their in-state rivals from Tampa Bay in five games. The Bruins will be playing for the eighth time in 17 days when the puck drops Monday night.
Now with some momentum, Marchand said the Bruins want to get back to playing quickly as opposed to practicing for several days in the lead-up to another series. They’re feeling good about their game, he noted, making jumping back into the playoff fray actually advantageous.
“Give yourselves another chance, an opportunity to move forward and play another incredible team,” Marchand said. “Watch the first round and (Florida) absolutely dominated. They’re a very, very difficult matchup. So another opportunity to be excited about it and the great challenge ahead of us.”
The Panthers are not the cursed Maple Leafs. They are deeper, tougher and built for a long postseason run. They leaped over a Boston team that looked like they eased up in its last two regular season games (wanting to play Toronto in the first round instead of Tampa Bay), and now have the home ice advantage and the all-important last change in four of a potential seven games.
And of course, they rallied from a 3-to-1 deficit a year ago as the No. 8 seed to stun top seeded Boston in the first round en route to a berth in the Cup Final.
The Bruins will be a decided underdog. They’ll need Jeremy Swayman (“by far our best player in the (Toronto) series,” head coach Jim Montgomery acknowledged) to remain at the same level that saw him finish with a 1.49 goals against average and .950 save percentage against the Leafs. They need superstars like Charlie McAvoy (another tough game Saturday), Pastrnak and Marchand to step up their games. They need the bottom two lines to continue to play as well as they did in Game 7, and the defense to pack it in in front of Swayman and limit Grade-A chances from Florida’s marksmen.
Pastrnak admitted in the postgame press conference that along with the elation of scoring his game-winner Saturday, there was also a measure of “relief” of finally putting away the pesky-but-star-crossed Torontonians and advancing. Not said — but it was certainly understood — was the fact that Boston avoided the ignominy of being the first professional team in the Big 4 sports to blow 3-1 series leads in consecutive years.
The Bruins have advanced. A superior opponent awaits.
Let’s see if they can step up to the challenge.
###
Phil Stacey, the Executive Sports Editor at The Salem News, covers the Boston Bruins for CNHI Sports Boston. Contact him at pstacey@salemnews.com, and follow him on X @PhilStacey_SN