It’s time for head coach Jim Montgomery to provide his troops a history lesson.
We’re about to discover what happens when a mobile thing encounters a resistible force.
The Bruins are attempting not to choke for the second consecutive postseason, with the memory of last year’s dramatic collapse against the eighth-seeded Panthers still causing a hole in the part of their brain that processes terror.
The Maple Leafs say, “Hold our Molsons.” Their past is as tumultuous as any of the four main sports. They have won one playoff series in the last 20 seasons and one title in the last 60, with their losing streak extending from the Prince of Wales to the Clarence Campbell and beyond.
On Saturday, one of them will be weeping, “Why us!?!?” Despite the happenings of Games 5 and 6, it is not foretold that it will be the Bruins, even if it feels that way.
The final two games make no sense. The Boston Red Sox have dominated despite struggling on the bench, losing a key player to injury, and firing head coach Sheldon Keefe. The Leafs were cooked, but the Bruins are playing like they had everything to lose, saving their two worst players.
So we’ve moved on to Game 7, which is precisely where the Bruins were last year and where they don’t want to be this year. It would be helpful if they quit acting as if they had already lost, with their hangdog attitude, finger-pointing, and false defiance.
Hangdog: The team’s combined energy was best described as a morose 9-year-old kicking pebbles. No more watery stares, please.
Finger-pointing: Coach Jim Montgomery emphasized the necessity for David Pastrnak to take more responsibility.It may be accurate, but coming from another coach in the hot seat, it just smells desperate, with a hint of, “Don’t blame me.” “This is not my fault.”
Fake defiant: Brad Marchand stated that if the Bruins were told they would host Game 7, they would be thrilled. Hard pass. Nobody wants to hear that.
The Bruins need to quit hyperventilating and remember that the Leafs are, in fact, terrible at this.
They’re the squad who rallied back from a 3-1 deficit against the Bruins in 2013, only to lose a 4-1 lead in the third period of Game 7 before succumbing on Patrice Bergeron’s overtime goal. They’re the squad who rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the same Bruins in 2018, only to blow another Game 7 lead in Boston. They are the same club that lost another Game 7 to the Boston Red Sox the following year.
It’s in Toronto’s DNA to lose this very series in this exact manner, and if I’m Montgomery, I’ll be playing highlights from all three Game 7s to tell the Bruins that they shouldn’t be terrified of history repeating itself, because history is on their side.
I wish I could say I’m as confident as I was a few days ago, but the Bruins are playing so terrified, they’ve turned one of the league’s most average defenses into the 1995 New Jersey Devils of neutral-zone trap legend. They suddenly have limited space to operate. It would be one thing if they were the victims of a hot goalie, and Joseph Woll has clearly outperformed unstable veteran Ilya Samsonov, but the Bruins have made Woll’s life easier by failing to put him to the test.
This could be related to the fact that they appear to be able to stand on milk crates. When they continued tumbling down to begin Game 5, I blamed the Garden ice, even though it only appeared to be tripping up one team. When they continued to stumble in Game 6 like so many newborn fawns, with Pastrnak slumped behind the net at one point after being shoved with all the might of a feather duster, we could only infer that they’re wound tighter than an abused Slinky.
They must find a way to relieve that stress and let their forecheck do its job, because goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman has won all five of his starts, and the Leafs aren’t exactly generating A-plus scoring chances on a regular basis. The Bruins may win Game 7 with only two goals.
So, relax and remember who you’re playing. The Bruins may be concerned about a repetition of last year, but the Leafs have been blowing games like this for years. Get out of your own way and allow them.
