Bruins Well Aware That Closing Out Maple Leafs Won’t Be Easy
The Bruins are well aware of how difficult it can be closing out a Stanley Cup playoff series, especially when you’re up 3-1.
Just take last season for example.
Boston took that exact lead in its first-round series with the Florida Panthers in 2023 but lost each of the final three games to bring an end to its historic season. The Bruins even took a pair of those final games to overtime, but just couldn’t get the job done.
It’s a new year, though, and the B’s are ready for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best shot as they try to close things out in Game 5 at TD Garden on Tuesday.
“The closing out game is always the toughest, when a team’s got their back against the wall and they’re gonna give everything they can,” Bruins forward Charlie Coyle told reporters Monday. “We’re expecting their best game. That’s something we want to prepare for, be ready for, but right back at it, we want to show them our best.
“We know we’re capable of playing even better than we have been. We can tighten some things up, hone in on our details, compete. All that good stuff that has brought us success so far, we want to keep on that.”
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“Just prepare as best as you can,” David Pastrnak said, echoing similar sentiments. “We know it’s going to be the hardest game of the series. They’re fighting for their lives and it’s gonna be the hardest game tomorrow. We have to make sure we are prepared for it.”
The Bruins obviously have some fresh faces, and though key contributors like Danton Heinen, John Beecher, Jesper Boqvist and Pat Maroon weren’t around last season, they aren’t blind to the fact that Game 5 is pivotal.
“They always say it’s the hardest one to win, right? No matter what, it’s the closing game,” Maroon said. “I think for us we just have to stick to the same process that we’ve been doing, stick to the same structures, keep finding ways to play simple, boring hockey.”
If closing out the series in five games against one of their most hated rivals is boring, the Bruins will take boring.
NESN’s Sean McGuire contributed to this story.