BOSTON — The Bruins who took the ice to start Game 5 on Tuesday barely resembled the team that seized control of their best-of-seven series last week in Toronto.
They were outshot 11-2 in the first period. They had almost no offensive zone time. Their passes were crisp and therefore weren’t connecting. The Maple Leafs looked urgent. The Bruins looked slow.
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The Bruins almost got away with it, but fell 2-1 in overtime at TD Garden. Game 6 is Thursday in Toronto.
“We were’t good enough. Toronto came out ready to play and took it to us. We weren’t ready to match their desperation,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who added. “We weren’t good enough. I don’t have something that’s concrete that led to our slow start.”
Brad Marchand agreed.
“They were just better. They were willing to leave it all on the line tonight and we needed to be better than we were. It’s that simple,” he said. “They were prepared to start the game and we weren’t. Unfortunately we never really got it together throughout the game. We can’t dwell on it. We need to look at what we can be better at and prepare for the next one.”
Jim Montgomery said the Bruins need to get back to the way they played in Toronto.
“It’s frustrating but we have to move on. That’s the playoffs. The majority of the series we’ve played real good hockey,” he said. “That’s what we have to get back to Thursday night.”
Marchand expected that’s what would happen.
“We’ve been really good at staying in the moment. That doesn’t change tonight. We didn’t expect this to be a quick series,” he said. “We expect them to come out even harder next game. We’ve been really good at sticking together and going though adversity. Another opportunity presents itself next game. We have to be prepared to seize it.”
