Each the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs have demons to slay of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs sequence on Saturday night time at Boston’s TD Backyard.
For the Bruins, it is time for the staff that holds the NHL’s finest regular-season document over the previous two seasons to win within the postseason.
Boston set NHL information with 65 wins and 135 factors in 2022-23, earlier than dropping within the first spherical to the Florida Panthers in seven video games.
This season, regardless of their prime facilities – Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci – skating off to retirement over the summer season, the Bruins had been once more one of many league’s finest groups, compiling a 47-20-15 document for 109 factors – good for second within the Atlantic Division and fourth seed within the Jap Convention.
In fact, the Maple Leafs’ playoff distress goes again a lot additional than final season.
Now, we cannot be so merciless as to take issues all the way in which again to 1967, when Toronto final received a Stanley Cup. (Whoops.)
We’d like solely return to 2016, the rookie seasons for stars Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Defenseman Morgan Rielly was already there. In 2018, the staff added captain John Tavares as a free agent.
Regardless of that bounty of offensive expertise and persistently being one of many NHL’s prime regular-season groups (46-26-10, 102 factors this season), the Maple Leafs have received just one playoff spherical, final season towards Tampa Bay.
Of their 5 first-round playoff losses, two have come towards Bruins (2018 and 2019). Each sequence went seven video games, with Boston profitable every Recreation 7 at TD Backyard.
Each groups want excess of a first-round win to get any satisfaction out of those playoffs.
Will captain Brad Marchand, famous person winger David Pastrnak and defenseman Charlie McAvoy lead Boston to a win within the first spherical? Or will the quintet of Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Rielly and Tavares lead Toronto into the second spherical for the second consecutive season?
It must be enjoyable to look at and discover out.
