When the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs meet Saturday night in Game 7 of their first-round series, there will be more than just a second-round berth and a matchup with the Florida Panthers on the line. . Reputations will be at stake. Narratives will be at stake.
While this may sound a little overly dramatic, some low-hanging fruit sports talk, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion. Neither team can afford to lose in this matchup, and whichever team loses will be opening themselves up to scathing criticism for continuing to fail in big moments.
For Toronto, the story here is simple. This current core group has lost in the first round in six of the last seven seasons, has consistently lost in Game 7s, and has never done anything significant in the playoffs despite having highly skilled and well-paid players. They were also unable to beat Boston in those big games.
Another loss would make it seven first-round exits in eight years without ever having a truly dominant regular season performance, and would only add another brutal defeat at the hands of a division rival who has consistently bullied them and been better than them. This would only add to the questions and criticism that have followed and haunted the organization for most of the last decade.
For Boston, suddenly facing the most pressure in this series, it is trying to avoid blowing 3-1 series leads in consecutive seasons with what would be a second straight Game 7 loss at home.
What makes this series even more surprising than last year’s is that Boston missed opportunities to close out the series in back-to-back games against a Toronto team that changed goalies (Ilya Samsonov to Joseph Woll ) and who did not have their best player (Auston Matthews). He continued what is now a six-game losing streak (over the past three seasons) for the Bruins in potential closing games. Extending that streak to a seventh game and losing to a flawed, Matthews-less Maple Leafs team is the kind of thing that could lead to major organizational changes this offseason.
There’s always pressure in a Game 7, but given the recent history of these two franchises, that pressure is going to reach an extra level Saturday night.
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Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins — Game 7
How to watch: 8 p.m. ET on ABC, SN
Series tied 3-3
- The Bruins have lost six straight games where they had a chance to advance. That streak includes a Game 7 loss to Carolina in the first round of the 2022 playoffs, three straight games against Florida in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, and Games 5 and 6 in the first round of those playoffs against Toronto. .
- The Maple Leafs have their own streak of playoff futility that they are trying to end after losing five straight Game 7s dating back to the 2012-13 playoffs. Three of those Game 7 losses came against the Bruins (2013, 2018, 2019).
- The return of William Nylander was a game changer for the Maple Leafs. They are 2-1 since his return as he scored two goals and helped the Maple Leafs have a 56 percent expected goals share in 5-on-5 play when on the ice and outscored the Bruins by a 3-0 margin in those minutes.
- The Bruins started painfully slow in each of the last two games, getting outscored by a combined margin of 23-3 (and 21-2 in 5-on-5 play) in the first period. They looked hesitant, unable to establish their game early on, forcing them to chase the game every night. They can’t let this happen again.
- Penalties tend to disappear in Game 7, which will make the small number of power plays that occur all the more important. Toronto is just 1-for-20 on the power play in this series, while the Bruins have converted on six of their 15 opportunities.
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(Photo by John Tavares and David Pastrnak: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)