So this is how it ends: With The Standells classic “Dirty Water” blaring at deafening levels in TD Garden to celebrate a Boston Bruins win and to signify another Toronto Maple Leafs loss in a Game 7 in Boston.
The respect the Leafs might get in the handshake line for battling back from down 3-1 in the series will be of little consolation as they lost their fourth Game 7 in Boston in the last 11 years. A perfectly executed set play ended the game and, quite possibly, the Leafs core as currently constructed. Hampus Lindholm fired the puck from within his own zone off the end boards and David Pastrnak picked it up off the bounce and fired home his third goal of the playoffs.
Pastrnak’s game-winning goal in the 2-1 Bruins overtime win left the Leafs skating in circles in the seconds afterward, clearly dazed at how the wave they had been riding crashed so quickly and magnificently.
Everything about Game 7 was tense: The will he, won’t he nature of Auston Matthews’ status leading up to warm-ups. The surprise of Ilya Samsonov starting in goal in place of Joseph Woll, who was injured in Game 6. The vibe inside TD Garden wasn’t as overwhelming in favour of the home team, but instead far more anxious. And that was helped by the fact that the game itself was back-and-forth in the limited chances and featured both teams cautious of exposing themselves with mistakes. The Bruins dominated the first period while the Leafs stepped on the gas in the second.
Through the seven-game series, the Leafs scored just 12 goals. Their lack of offence might have been their undoing in the series.
Bruins set play sinks the Leafs
Pastrnak’s winning goal is sure to leave questions for Leafs fans.
How could Pastrnak sneak through the Leafs zone relatively undetected and without any physical pressure whatsoever?
And how could he find the inch or so of daylight between the post and Samsonov’s sprawling pad to sneak home his goal?
We had been waiting all series for Pastrnak to show up in this series in a big way. His overtime goal will only cement his legacy as one of the greatest Bruins of the modern era.
On the other end, the Leafs were left with questions of their own when it came to goal-scoring.
Even if you allow for the fact that playoff games are tight affairs and that the Leafs were missing the greatest goal scorer in the NHL for two games this series, that the Leafs went another series failing to score should haunt them. In their last two playoff series, the Leafs scored more than two goals just once. Once!
There will undoubtedly be time for deeper post-mortems on this Leafs team but in the short term, how a team built top-heavy with offensive weapons came away snake-bitten will be a talking point.
Leafs grab and quickly let go of the lead
As tense as things were throughout two-and-a-half periods, with both teams deep into “Let’s just not mess this up” territory, of course, it was the man who is never stressed who broke the game open.
Matthews fired a perfect pass to a waiting William Nylander in the slot who pushed home his third goal of the playoffs.
So, all good in Leafland, right? Nylander would only cement his super-stardom with the kind of goal that would go down in Leafs lore, right?
Those immaculate vibes lasted for all of 81 seconds before Hampus Lindholm tied the game for the Bruins and sent TD Garden into the kind of frenzy not heard all game and possibly all series.
Assists on the goal went to former Leaf James van Riemsdyk and former Marlie Justin Brazeau, because of course.
Lindholm’s goal not only released thousands of clenched hands within TD Garden, it woke the Bruins up in a big way. The home side pressed Samsonov and the Leafs shift after shift in the third period. The Leafs’ inability to hold down a lead and build momentum is not a new problem, and in Game 7 it felt like a problem they couldn’t shake.
Auston Matthews returns
After continued uncertainty in the morning, throughout the afternoon it looked more and more likely that Matthews would return after being kept out of Games 5 and 6. And sure enough, Matthews returned and was deployed on a line between Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok.
Matthews never looked as comfortable as he has at his dominant, 69-goal scoring best this season. Perhaps that’s to be expected, given that he missed more than two games and that the ailment he has been nursing is clearly serious.
Matthews registered just one shot through two periods but came on a bit in the third period, highlighted by his primary assist to Nylander.
Joseph Woll injured, Ilya Samsonov in
It wouldn’t be a game in this series without touches of drama from the Leafs. And after rumours began swirling in the afternoon about Joseph Woll’s availability, it ended up being Ilya Samsonov who started in goal for the Leafs. The Leafs announced pre-game that Woll sustained an injury in Game 6.
Samsonov, you’ll remember, was pulled in the second intermission of Game 4 and it felt like he might have played his last game as a Leaf once Woll locked things down with two impressive performances in Games 5 and 6.
But he was thrown back in nevertheless and had a shaky start as the Bruins pressed, losing his stick twice on two separate plays early in the first period. He settled down in the second period and moved well from post to post enough to make a few saves that took the air out of multiple Bruins attacks.
Samsonov kept his head above water in the third period. He lost his stick again and failed to clasp multiple shots with his glove but still stayed in the game in a way that deserves respect considering he likely found out he was starting just hours earlier.
Samsonov ended up stopping 29-of-31 shots, no small feat. He was beat by a world-class scorer in overtime, so it’s hard to fault him there either. Would Woll have stopped Pastrnak’s shot in overtime? You’d think that question might keep Leafs fans awake at night but given their history against the Bruins, there’s no shortage of reasons for sleepless nights either.
(Photo of Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand: Steve Babineau / NHLI via Getty Images)
