3 keys for Bruins to answer the bell in Game 7

No team in the history of the NHL, NBA or Major League Baseball has blown a 3-1 series lead two years in a row. The Boston Bruins will try to avoid becoming the first when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their first-round series Saturday night at TD Garden.

It is understandable to feel pessimistic about the Bruins’ chances. In recent years, they have not given their fans any reason to believe in them in closeout games. They have lost their last six going back to 2022.

And yet, they will in fact play the game, and the Bruins do in fact have a chance to win. As poorly as Boston has played the last two games, Game 5 went to overtime and Game 6 was a one-goal game until the closing minutes of the third period.

The Bruins are not getting run off the ice by a vastly superior team. They still have Jeremy Swayman, arguably the best goalie in these Stanley Cup playoffs so far, backstopping them. They have only allowed three goals in regulation in these last two losses.

There is also some history on their side just within this rivalry. In both 2013 and 2018, the Bruins went up 3-1 on the Leafs, lost Games 5 and 6, and then bounced back to win Game 7.

But, there are obviously some things the Bruins need to do a lot better, and some top players who need to play a lot better. Here are three keys for Game 7:

1. Start on time

The Bruins landed two shots on goal in the first period of Game 5. That was bad. Then they landed just one shot on goal in the first period of Game 6.

They simply didn’t look ready to match the desperation and intensity of a Leafs team that was facing elimination. The fact that it happened two games in a row is completely inexcusable.

It absolutely cannot happen again Saturday night. Now the Bruins are also facing elimination, so there’s no reason either team should be more desperate than the other.

“It's not necessarily about the shots, but just the way you're playing, the mindset and the focus and being ready,” Bruins center Charlie Coyle said Friday. “And we are ready, but hockey's funny sometimes and it goes a certain way, but you have to sway it your way. It's up to each line to go out there and do what they can to sway that momentum. We don’t have to go out and score, but we just trust our game and we play well. But it's all about that start and create that momentum and then we can kind of ride that and we just keep coming.”

Coyle and coach Jim Montgomery both highlighted the TD Garden crowd as something the Bruins will want to feed off, but that has been easier said than done in recent postseasons. The Bruins are just 2-5 at home in their last two playoff series.

Montgomery said the team is changing a couple things in its gameday preparation in an effort to get off to a better start on home ice. One of them is that Saturday’s morning skate will be at the Garden rather than its usual spot, Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton.

2. Get inside

It’s not just that the Bruins aren’t getting enough shot quantity; they’re also not getting enough quality.

Joseph Woll has been very good since taking over the Leafs’ net from Ilya Samsonov and is certainly a big reason Toronto has come back to tie the series. But the Bruins also haven’t made his life difficult enough.

“I don’t think we’re getting enough opportunities to be able to say that he’s [getting in our heads],” Montgomery said of Woll after Game 6. “He’s playing really well, but we’re not getting enough. We need to get more.”

The formula is simple, because it’s the oldest blueprint in the book: Get more pucks and bodies to the net and take away Woll’s eyes. Easier said than done in the playoffs, especially with the Leafs clogging up the middle of the ice more the last couple games as they’ve adjusted to life without star center Auston Matthews.

“We’ve gotta get to inside ice more with the puck and without the puck,” Montgomery said. “Sounds simple. Inside ice is between the dots. If you're outside the dots with or without the puck, you're not a real threat to score. You’ve gotta get below the tops. Defenseman is different. If they're shooting pucks from [outside] the dots and we have bodies at the net – something we haven't done a good enough job of is taking away his eyes on those point shots. And then we've had a lot that have been blocked. It's just a lot of clutter, but that's playoffs. You’ve gotta fight through that.”

The Bruins have been a quality-over-quantity offense all season. They don’t want to just throw outside shots on net unless there are bodies in front for deflections and rebounds. That approach led to a higher percentage of playoff-style, greasy goals in the regular season than they scored last year.

They have gone quiet in that department in the last two games, though. They don’t have the talent, time or space to start scoring prettier goals, so scoring in Game 7 is going to come down to sheer will and determination.

3. David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy

“Your best players need to be your best players this time of year.”

That’s what Montgomery said after Game 6 when asked about Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, and he’s absolutely right. He went on to point out that Marchand has already stepped up and dominated at times in this series, especially in Games 3 and 4.

Pastrnak, though?

“Pasta needs to step up,” Montgomery said.

He certainly does. After a 47-goal, 110-point regular season, Pastrnak has just two goals and four points through six games in this series. He has been held without a point in the last two games.

Pastrnak is far from the only Bruin to go quiet at the worst time. In fact, the Bruins’ top 10 players in average time on ice have all been held off the scoresheet in the last two games. His usual center, Pavel Zacha, has not been good enough to help Pastrnak get going.

But the Bruins’ offense has gone as Pastrnak goes all season. All eyes are rightfully on him. With this series slowing to a grind both ways, any kind of breakthrough from Pastrnak could make all the difference in Game 7.

Montgomery believes Pastrnak is ready to meet the challenge he issued to his star after Game 6.

“I talked to him right after the game about it,” Montgomery said Friday. “I talked to him about it during the game. Pasta and I have a real healthy, communicative relationship, and he's ready to go.”

There’s another Bruins star who needs to step up, too: Charlie McAvoy. After recording three points in the first two games of the series, McAvoy has one in the last four.

More importantly, McAvoy has been on the ice for each of Toronto’s last three goals, and unfortunately, he’s been in the middle of the action. On Matthew Knies’ overtime winner in Game 5, McAvoy and Coyle both failed to pick up Knies or clear away the rebound.

On William Nylander’s first goal in Game 6, McAvoy committed a bad icing right before it, and then wound up deflecting the shot past Swayman as he didn’t get his positioning right on a block attempt. On the second, McAvoy couldn’t cut off Knies’ pass that sent Nylander in on a breakaway.

Pastrnak and McAvoy are the Bruins’ two highest-paid players. They’re the two alternate captains under Marchand. They’re the pillars that this new era of Bruins hockey will be built around. The Bruins need a lot of guys to step up Saturday night, but it needs to start with those two.