BOSTON — At its most basic, the game was this year’s Richard Award winner beating last year’s Vezina winner on a breakaway to give Toronto a 3-2 win over the Bruins to tie the series 1-1.
It was a competitive game in what figures to be a competitive series.
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But the 2023-24 season for the Bruins has been all about how they have and will answer the unavoidable character questions that have followed them since last year’s dramatically disappointing finish. Monday’s loss that at least temporarily cost Boston home ice advantage is a good time to ask them.
The Bruins have a different roster and they’re coming off a much different season than they had last year. But for all the players who are back, including most of their core, the question will be how will they bounce back. Boston has to win a series to prove they can.
What’s the ratio of motivation to doubt as they head to Canada?
Jim Montgomery questioned the Bruins’ urgency and criticized their performance in a toughness category after Monday’s loss.
“I didn’t think urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight,” he said. “I just didn’t think we won enough wall battles. … I just don’t think our players were in sync and what they were trying to do so that’s why it looks a little discombobulated.”
A playoff series is never really tied 1-1.
Whichever team won Game 2 almost always feels uplifted even though the games are even. Auston Matthews’ breakaway goal against Linus Ullmark gave the Maple Leafs that lift.
Toronto arrived in Boston under the cover of dark clouds. They lost four straight games to end the regular season. They lost all four times to the Bruins this year and hadn’t beaten them in a game since Nov. 5, 2022. And they’ve never beaten Boston in five playoff series. The Maple Leafs’ power play was flat and heading into Monday, Matthews, their all-world scorer had come up empty on 31 straight shots.
Coming out on Monday’s win, Toronto now has momentum and confidence. Their power play broke through. Matthews broke through. They finally beat the Bruins in a game. Ilya Samsonov played like a No. 1 goalie. On top of that, William Nylander hasn’t played at all yet so there’s room to get better as they try to exorcise their playoff demons against Boston.
“It’s two really good teams. We believe in our group. We have a good team. We know what we’re up against here,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s a really good team we have a ton of respect for. They demand a lot of us and our guys were right there with them tonight. We’re going to have to keep pushing on home ice.”
Now the Bruins have to demand a lot of themselves. Over the course of this season, especially late, it was a popular refrain from the Boston players that the adversity they’ve been through this year helped them. They never went through it during last year’s absurdly successful regular season and therefore weren’t ready to react to it when adversity showed up in the playoffs.
Whatever lessons they learned or toughness they gained this year, now is the time to call on it. The Bruins were terrific in Game 1 and not close to that in Game 2. Montgomery is right. They need to win more puck battles and get off their heels. They have to start strong, blunt the Maple Leafs’ confidence and take the crowd out of it. And the coach has to press the right buttons to get them there.
David Pastrnak said it starts on Tuesday.
“We have to regroup tomorrow and expect better.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
