BOSTON — They have three chances to do what should only take them one.
The Boston Bruins should take out Toronto tonight, at home in Game 5, and put the Maple Leafs out of their yearly playoff misery.
Don’t fool around, don’t make any unnecessary lineup changes, don’t go away from what’s been working.
Get it done. Tonight.
Take care of the bickering Buds while you have them down for an 8-count. Don’t give them a so-you’re-saying-there’s-a-chance hope of reversing their fortunes. Keep them beleaguered and broken, forever the bridesmaid and never actually standing at the altar next to their beloved.
The Bruins have taken command of this first round series by hurting the Maple Leafs when it counts most. They’ve scored six power play goals in 13 opportunities for an eye popping 46.2 success rate — and that’s after struggling on the man advantage for much of the last three months. They’ve held an opponent that scored the second-most goals (303) in the regular season to just seven in a dozen periods of playoff puck.
Their save percentage through four games is .944, with Jeremy Swayman — who should remain between the pipes for Game 5 after back-to-back wins in Toronto — near impenetrable with a .956 mark and 1.44 goals against average.
Brad Marchand, Boston’s captain, is playing like a man much younger than his 35 years would suggest. Two of his three postseason goals have been game-winners and he’s now the organization’s all-time leading goal scorer in postseason play with 56. He’s added a team-best five assists and eight points, and has done what he perhaps does better than anything else — get under the skin, and into the heads, of his foes — to near perfection.
Eight different players have scored at least one goal for the Bruins; another eight have at least one assist. They’re getting contributions from all four lines and three defensive pairs. They’re selling out to prevent shots from getting through, having blocked 82 in four games (Toronto has just 49). They’ve given up just one goal in each of their three victories, all with Swayman standing guard.
It’s all going Boston’s way so far.
So they need to drop the hammer and not chance a ‘what if’ scenario.
Only those with the most Dory-like memories can forget that this exact same scenario presented itself one year ago. The President’s Trophy winning and NHL record breaking Bruins were in complete control of their first round series with eighth-seeded Florida, leading 3 games to 1 and returning home to deliver the knockout blow.
Which, of course, never happened.
Which, of course, is further proof that there are absolutely no guarantees when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Maple Leafs are certainly down and appear destined for another ‘woe is us/blow it all up/fire everyone’ summer. But they have had a few advantages over Boston in this series. They’ve surprisingly outhit them, 220-189, being credited with a ridiculous 74 in Game 3. They’ve also had more success at the faceoff dot, having won 118-of-231 draws.
But the health of Auston Matthews could be what truly does them in. The 69-goal wunderkind left Game 4 in the second period and did not return. Because the Leafs, like virtually every NHL team, won’t discuss injuries during the postseason, we can only speculate (concussion? illness? injury we don’t know about?) about what ails the star center So he may or may not play Tuesday … and if he does, he’ll be relying on guts and guile more than anything else.
One must also consider that while the Bruins are 21-3 all-time when leading a series 3 games to 1, they’re only 29-25 in 54 Game 5’s on home ice.
Toronto could turn to goaltender Joseph Woll (in this writer’s opinion, a much better alternative than Ilya Samsonov) in an attempt to shake things up. Florida did it last year, switching from Alex Lyon to Sergei Bobrovsky, and it undoubtedly helped their comeback efforts.
But the Maple Leafs of 2024 are not the Panthers of 2023. Neither are the Bruins the same team that was shocked in a first round stunner; you’d have to imagine Jim Montgomery’s club, despite missing some key pieces from this time last spring, are a year older, wiser and hungrier to end this series and advance.
Time for the Bruins to put the Leafs to bed tonight so they can start focusing on a rematch with Florida in the second round.
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Phil Stacey, the Executive Sports Editor of The Salem News, covers the Boston Bruins for CNHI Sports Boston. Contact him at pstacey@salemnews.com and follow him on X @PhilStacey_SN