At Thursday’s morning skate, Maple Leafs defenseman Joel Edmundson was asked if he and his teammates had talked about the Bruins blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Panthers last year. Of course they had.
“Obviously, right when we got down 3-1, that was a topic we brought up,” Edmundson said. “It just gave us momentum and some positivity that we needed. Anything can happen.”
There are a couple unspoken words at the end of that last sentence: Anything can happen… against Boston.
After dropping Thursday night’s Game 6 in Toronto, 2-1 (with their one goal coming with one second left in the game), the Bruins are now one loss away from another inexcusable first-round collapse. They are one loss away from cementing their reputation as the team that blows 3-1 series leads – this year to a Leafs team that has its own history of choking and that has been without its best player, Auston Matthews, for the last two games.
All the talk about the Bruins’ culture and their leadership and lessons learned from last year… it all means nothing if they can’t find a way to pull themselves out of this death spiral and win Saturday night’s Game 7 at TD Garden, a game that will be filled with all the pressure and uneasiness in the world.
If they can’t, these collapses will be what people associate with “Bruins culture.” The organization can’t cling to 2011 forever. Only Brad Marchand is left from that Cup team. This current iteration of the Bruins hasn’t been out of the first round in three years, and hasn’t gotten past the second in five. Edmundson and other opponents now believe they are never out of it when they’re facing the Bruins. They see no killer instinct worth fearing.
It is still in the Bruins’ power to avoid becoming that team. If they win Saturday, there will of course still be a widespread feeling that it should’ve never gotten to that point, but they’ll have won. They’ll be moving on. And ultimately that’s all that really matters, even if takes a rocky, circuitous route to get there.
It will take a significantly better effort than the ones the Bruins have delivered in Games 5 and 6. For the second straight game, the Bruins did not start on time. After landing two shots on goal in the first period of Game 5, they had just one in the first period of Game 6 – and that came while they were on the penalty kill. Their second shot, and their first 5-on-5 shot, did not come until seven minutes into the second period.
“They’ve started well every game,” Marchand said of the Leafs. “They are prepared to play first shift, and we need to be better in that area. I think we had maybe one game where we started as good or better than them. The last couple games, they started really hard and kind of carried the momentum through the first period. So, we have to do a much better job there.”
The Bruins need to create more chances early on, and they need to get their offense going, period. They have scored two goals in the last two games, and were one second away from it being just one goal.
It has to start with their best players. Their top 10 players in ice time have a combined zero points in the last two games. It’s a list that incudes Marchand, David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Jake DeBrusk, Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo. That is the core of this team. Is this what they want their legacy to be?
Marchand was at least dominant earlier in the series, taking over in Boston’s wins in Games 3 and 4, in particular. The Bruins could desperately use a takeover like that from Pastrnak, their most talented and best player all season. It hasn’t happened yet in this series.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who rarely criticizes any of his players publicly, called out Pastrnak by name after Game 6.
“Your best players need to be your best players this time of year,” Montgomery said. “I think the effort is tremendous. They need to come through with some big-time plays in big-time moments. Marchand has done that in this series. Pasta needs to step up.”
If that seems like an unusual and desperate comment from Montgomery, it’s because it is. Montgomery is under as much pressure as anyone. He may very well be coaching for his job Saturday night. It is hard to imagine any coach anywhere surviving back-to-back years of blown 3-1 leads in the first round. It is time to play whatever cards he has left, and calling out his biggest star is apparently one of them.
Jeremy Swayman was very good in net once again Thursday. One of the Leafs’ goals deflected in off McAvoy and the other was a breakaway. He remains the least of the Bruins’ problems, and arguably the only player who showed up these last two games. Nonetheless, he is now 0-4 in closeout games in his young career. If he starts Saturday (he should) and loses, he would be 0-3 in Game 7s. That isn’t something you want on your resume, whether it’s your fault or not.
Swayman remains the brightest ray of sunshine in all of this, not just with his play, but also with his ceaseless positivity after games.
“Total confidence. There is no doubt in my mind that Pasta and every guy in this locker room is gonna pull their end of the rope,” Swayman said Thursday night. “And that’s what’s going to be so special, is when these guys do their job to the best of their ability and give max effort. That’s what I expect from my teammates, that’s what they expect from me, and that’s what makes us such a special group.”
That’s all nice for Swayman to say. It’s great if he truly believes it. But it’s just about impossible for anyone outside the Bruins locker room to have that kind of confidence in this team or see them as “special” right now.
The Bruins’ 0-6 record in closeout games over the last three years has created too much doubt about their ability to finish the job. And perhaps just as importantly, it has given confidence to opponents like Edmundson.
The Bruins have one last chance to salvage their season and reputation on Saturday night.
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