BOSTON — In just over 62 minutes of playoff hockey Tuesday night at TD Garden, the Bruins managed all of one goal.
In trying to explain their flat 2-1 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 of the teams’ first-round playoff matchup, the Bruins had no more luck finding answers than they had in scoring goals.
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“We weren’t good enough. Simple as that,” concluded coach Jim Montgomery. “Toronto came out ready to play, took it to us. We weren’t ready to match. They were desperate….Our effort didn’t match theirs.”
Montgomery sat at the podium minutes after Matthew Knies had potted the game-winner for the Leafs just 2:26 into overtime, and faced a wave of questions, all of which were variations of: What happened?
But Montgomery struggled to supply explanations, except to correctly determine that the Bruins lacked a certain….something.
“We just weren’t good enough,” said Montgomery. “We weren’t good enough. I don’t have something to give you that’s concrete, that led to our slow start. Besides (the fact that) Toronto was better.”
Montgomery was being kind in labeling the Bruins’ start as “slow.” More apt would have been turgid, or leisurely, leading to two (2) shots on goal for the first 20 minutes. Trent Frederic got a gift bounce of the puck in front of the net and beat Joseph Woll at 13:54 of the first period, tying the game at 1-1.
That was the end of the Bruins’ scoring. The Bruins’ power play, which had been so dominant in the first four games of the series, had just one opportunity, which resulted in one shot on goal.
In the B’s dressing room, additional insight was not forthcoming,
“They were just better,” said captain Brad Marchand. “They came and they were willing to leave it all on the line tonight and we needed to be better and we weren’t. It’s that simple. They were prepared to play and start the game and we weren’t. Unfortunately, we never really kind of got it together throughout the game.”
Hockey is a game built on emotion and effort, and the Maple Leafs, facing the end of their season, had more of both. That shouldn’t have surprised the Bruins, who knew Toronto would bring everything it had.
Tuesday’s game was eerily reminiscent of Game 5 last April. Then, as now, the Bruins had won Games 3 and 4 on the road in Florida to take a commanding 3-to-1 lead in the series against the Panthers. Then, as now, the Bruins came home with a chance to end the series in Game 5 and promptly lost, 4-3, also in overtime.
Upsets in the first-round of the Stanley Cup playoffs are common, but last spring’s ouster at the hands of the Panthers was genuinely stunning. The Bruins had established records for most regular season wins and points, while the Panthers barely qualified for the playoffs.
And still, Florida ousted the Bruins, a reminder of how unpredictable hockey’s postseason can be. Now, the Bruins are in danger of seeing history repeat itself.
Even allowing for Tuesday’s dud, Boston has clearly outplayed Toronto for long stretches in this series. They remain heavy favorites to advance to the next round, which will feature a return engagement with Florida and the perfect opportunity to exact some revenge for last season.
But as Game 5 served to remind everyone, there are no guarantees. Just because the Bruins have been the better team than Toronto — during the regular season and again, over the last 10 days — means little.
The troubling thing is that the Bruins Tuesday night showed no evidence that they had learned their lesson. Had they taken care of business in Game 5, they would have given themselves a few days of rest before moving on to a rematch.
Instead, the Bruins handed the Leafs a lifeline, and some accompanying momentum.
As recently as Saturday night, the Leafs seemed without hope. They lost their best player, Austen Matthews, in the third period of Game 4 and he didn’t dress Tuesday night. They were seen arguing on the bench and appeared in disarray. Back home, the Maple Leafs live with constant reminders that they haven’t won a Stanley Cup in 57 seasons and have won only one post-season series since 2004.
But that desperation drove them in Game 5, and if the Bruins were surprised by it, then shame on them.
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s game, a few Bruins were reminded of the team’s inability to close out Florida last year under similar circumstances, and were almost offended by the line of questioning.
“I don’t care about last season,” huffed Linus Ullmark. “Last season is last season. We’re playing Toronto right now. That’s our mindset. That’s our focus. We don’t care about whatever happened.”
Perhaps the Game 5 loss will prove to be an outlier and the Bruins will take care of business in Game 6, having only inconvenienced themselves with the extra trip to Toronto.
“All we care about is the next game,” said Jeremy Swayman, who was again brilliant and one of the few Bruins who should be absolved of blame.
“The hardest one to get is that last one (in a series),” offered Marchand.
They found that out the hard way in Game 5. If they need it, they’ll get two more chances.
Just like last spring.
