The two greatest words in sports history: game 7.
When the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs meet in the playoffs, the series always seems to go to 7 games, and this year was no different. For me, I thought this might be the year the Bruins go down.
While I am usually one for “hot takes,” I think this opinion had a lot of reason behind it. Since the Bruins were 0-5 in series clinching games, their stats didn’t help their case at all.
I felt that Toronto had more momentum coming back to Boston after coming back from a 3-1 deficit. This will usually make a team much more confident, and with as hot as their goalie (Joseph Woll) was, I was sure the Bruins would send their fans home disappointed in back to back years.
However, after the start of the game, and watching the first period, my prediction changed. I felt the Bruins had the stronger opening period, and when that happens, it seems to be a winning formula for Boston.
Watching this game most likely shaved a couple of years off my life. As the game would continue to be 0-0 until the third period, the Leafs opened up the scoring early on in the period.
Being down in game 7 is nothing Boston hasn’t see, as the last four times they played Toronto in a game 7, they had been losing in all of them. Despite that, the Bruins would end up coming back to win in all four, and would do so once again, having history repeat itself as the Bruins would pull out the win in a final score of 2-1, with the final goal coming in overtime.
While my pregame prediction may not have been right, I’m glad I was wrong, and while I am still optimistic about our chances against Florida, this season will most likely end in heartbreak, but at least we get to watch some more playoffs Bruins’ hockey.
