The Boston Bruins have survived their first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs with overtime heroics from David Pastrnak in Game 7. For the Maple Leafs, it's more postseason heartbreak with a fourth straight series loss to their biggest rival.
The teams played a tight-checking game and went into overtime tied at 1-1, but it only took 1:54 for Pastrnak to come up with the clutch goal. Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm crossed the center red line and fired the puck into the Toronto zone.
Pastrnak read the play perfectly and burnt a couple of Maple Leafs defenders for the loose puck after it kicked off the end boards. With nothing but time and space in front of the Maple Leafs net, Pastrnak schooled Ilya Samsonov to send Boston through to the next round.
In his postgame interview, Pastrnak said he was most proud of how the Bruins fought back after falling behind 1-0 in the third period. Trent Frederic's line came up with an excellent shift to keep Boston alive, and Pastrnak made a clutch play in overtime.
"Just the comeback, honestly," Pastrnak told ESPN's Emily Kaplan. "In third period play, down 1-0. There's nothing easy, you know? Freddie's line came up huge. They got us the tying goal, and I was able to make a play on the game-winning goal. ... Just focused on making one more play today."
Nine minutes into the third period, William Nylander broke a 0-0 tie when he cashed in a perfect pass from Auston Matthews to give his team a one-goal lead. That edge didn't last long, though, as tenacious forechecking from Boston created chaos in the Toronto zone, and Hampus Lindholm put a shot through traffic that beat Samsonov.
The Maple Leafs were never really able to recover after that, and now they have failed to reach the second round for the seventh time in their last eight postseason appearances. This was also their seventh straight Game 7 loss, dating back to 1992.
After winning this series in dramatic fashion, Boston must quickly turn its attention to the second round. The Bruins will face the Atlantic Division champion Florida Panthers, the team that came back from 3-1 down to beat them in the first round last year.
Following the Bruins' Game 6 loss to the Maple Leafs, head coach Jim Montgomery didn't shy away from calling out his star forward. Montgomery said Boston needed more from Pastrnak in "big-time moments."
"Your best players need to be your best players this time of year," Montgomery said in his press conference. "I think the effort is tremendous. They need to come through with some big-time plays in big-time moments. [Brad] Marchand has done this throughout the series. (Pastrnak) needs to step up."
I think it's fair to say that message was received. Even before the overtime goal, Pastrnak was one of the more noticeable players on the ice for the Bruins. His four shots on goal and eight shot attempts were tied for second on the team, and Pastrnak created two high-danger scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
Then again, those numbers wouldn't mean much if the Maple Leafs were the ones advancing. Moments don't get much bigger than overtime in Game 7. Plays don't get much bigger than the one Pastrnak made in that moment.
No one was ever questioning Pastrnak's talent, but if the Bruins are going to go on a deep playoff run, he has to be the one driving the bus. On Saturday night, Pastrnak did just that, and he'll need to do it some more in the next round.
There is probably a decent chance that we just witnessed the final game the "Core Four" will ever play together. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander have formed a star-studded quartet since 2018-19, but they haven't found much postseason success in that span.
That group has taken the Maple Leafs to the playoffs in each of the last six seasons, but it has gotten out of the first round just once. That was last year, when Toronto eliminated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games before winning just one second-round game against the Florida Panthers.
This series was an especially tough one for those players. Nylander and Matthews both missed time with an injury while Marner and Tavares had their share of struggles. They combined for just six goals and six assists, which isn't enough from four players making upwards of $39 million.
That combined cap hit will only go up in 2024-25, when extensions kick in for Matthews in Nylander. The former is set to make $13.5 million per season, and the latter is getting a significant pay bump to $11.5 million per year.
As good as those four have been for the Maple Leafs in the regular season, the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and they haven't even come close to achieving those heights. That being the case, don't be surprised to see general manager Brad Treliving make big changes in the summer.
Given the fact that they just signed contract extensions, Matthews and Nylander will likely be back for 2024-25 and beyond. That leaves Tavares and Marner as the obvious trade candidates. Marner, 26, has one year left on his deal at $10.9 million. Tavares, 33, has one year remaining at $11 million.
Letting one or both of those players go will be a tough pill to swallow for the Maple Leafs, but change is necessary at this point. Things have gotten stale in Toronto, and the franchise has to do everything it can to compete for a Cup while Matthews is still in his prime.
This was a long, hard-fought series, and the Bruins' reward is a second-round date with a Panthers team that has been resting for a week now. While Boston was able to outlast Toronto in this series, it must dig deeper in order to take down Florida.
The biggest concern for the Bruins in the next round is their offense. They just scored 18 goals in a seven-game series, and it's not like the Maple Leafs got all-world goaltending the entire time. David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand were too quiet at times, but the more glaring problem is the lack of depth up front.
The Panthers have four legitimate difference-makers in Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, and Aleksander Barkov. Throw in Vladimir Tarasenko and a healthy Sam Bennett, and the Bruins really start to look outgunned at forward.
In order for Boston to pull off the second-round upset and advance to the conference finals, it's going to need another exceptional performance from goaltender Jeremy Swayman. In his six first-round games, Swayman saved 8.07 goals above average, per Natural Stat Trick. That ranks first and more than doubles the second-best mark - 3.28 goals saved above average by Joseph Woll.
Sergei Bobrovsky was solid in the first round, but not necessarily unbeatable. If Swayman keeps playing like this, and Pastrnak can keep coming up with timely goals, the Bruins should be able to make things interesting.
On a bizarre play, the Bruins fire the puck into the Maple Leafs zone, the puck bounces off the end boards, and David Pastrnak beats both Toronto defensemen to the puck. All alone in front of Ilya Samsonov, he converts a slick deke for the series-winner.
Simon Benoit absolutely plasters Brad Marchand into the boards, and we are off to a roaring start in this overtime period.
Overtime in TD Garden is underway. One of these teams is just one shot away from reaching the second round of the playoffs. The other is one shot away from heartbreak. Let's do this.
This overtime should be as intense as any we've seen in recent postseason history because of the stakes for both sides. The Maple Leafs want to avoid another heartbreak at the hands of the Bruins, and this is something of a legacy game for the Core Four. The Bruins want to avoid becoming the first team in major American sports to blow a 3-1 series lead in back-to-back years, and their core isn't getting any younger either.
