BOSTON — A year ago, when the greatest regular season any NHL team had ever experienced was followed in short order by a first-round playoff upset, Jim Montgomery and the Bruins experienced the lowest of lows.
And this past week, when the Bruins seemed to be repeating history — losing Games 5 and 6 to set up another winner-take-all Game 7 at home — it began to feel eerily similar
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“Last year was such an empty feeling,” said Montgomery. “(Then, this year) having to go to a Game 7, having to go to overtime, the exact same…”
But as the Bruins readied for overtime Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montgomery also sensed something different.
“I said to the staff, ‘You know, we’ve gone to overtime in the playoffs four times — twice last year and once (already) this year,’ “ Montgomery said, “and it didn’t feel like we were going to seize the moment.’ I felt, and I told the staff this, ‘I’ve never felt this confident about our group going into overtime.’ You could just tell there was a difference in our attitude.”
As it turns out, the coach was prescient. Just under two minutes into overtime, David Pastrnak grabbed a rebound off the end boards and flipped a backhander past Toronto’s Ilya Samsonov for the game-winner, sending the Bruins on to the second round with a thrilling 2-1 victory
“It was a really tough series, very evenly played,” said Montgomery. “This was our best game of the series. Really proud of how the players because this was an opportunity to seize the moment and be difference-makers and I think everybody had the attitude of wanting to be a difference-maker.”
Last year, when the Bruins steamrolled the competition en route to a record number of wins and points, it felt as though the team was never tested. That wasn’t the case this year, when the Bruins had to scrap and claw more over the course of the regular season.
Come playoff time, that adversity paid dividends.
“I think it helped our team a lot,” said Montgomery. “To know that we’ve been able to fight back and find our game.”
But even Montgomery had some anxious moments. He was relaxed Friday, but Saturday afternoon, following his traditional pre-game nap, he was unsure.
“I had nerves. Because I didn’t know (what to expect),” said Montgomery. “Then I went to hit golf balls with my 12-year old. I just started teaching him and it just made me think, ‘This is what I love to do.’”
Montgomery took the unusual step of having his players stay at a nearby hotel Friday night, hoping to alter the team’s routine.
“The thinking was, we’re like 2-5 in the playoffs in the last two years at home,” he said. “So what’s going to allow us to eliminate the noise? When I went to the Patriots’ spring camp, and I see ‘Eliminate the outside noise,’ is the one thing that (Bill) Belichick preached and it was something that stuck with me. And it’s something I’ve been preaching as the playoffs were nearing.
“Also, it’s your family, (you’re) getting text messages constantly. You have to be able to narrow your focus and I thought that us going to a hotel and us coming to this rink today, where we were going to play, was something that would change the mental outlook. I don’t know if it helped or not but I think the group was ready so we might stay in a hotel some more.”
Had the Bruins faltered Saturday night, Montgomery’s job could well have on the line. But thanks to the overtime victory, they’re moving on and the talk of a second straight first-round elimination is done. And irony of ironies, the Bruins will now get a chance to avenge last year’s stinging setback with a rematch against the Florida Panthers, in a series that gets underway Monday night.
“We’re a better team because of what we just went through,” said Montgomery. “Now, they know what it takes to push through.”
But even as they breathe a sigh of relief in getting out of the first round, there’s little to celebrate yet.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” he cautioned. “We just earned the right to be playing in the second round.”
Which is more than they had a year ago.
