TORONTO — Sheldon Keefe perfectly summed up what Saturday’s Game 7 will mean when the Bruins and his Maple Leafs meet one more time.
“When your backs are against the wall and you’re facing elimination, you’re going to be remembered one way or the other,” he said after his team won Thursday night’s Game 6, 2-1, to force a deciding game. “How do you want that to be or to look?”
That’s true in any Game 7. But it’s especially true in this Game 7.
The Maple Leafs already have a reputation for folding in the playoffs, a reputation Boston has helped develop and one that will be further cemented if Toronto loses.
The Bruins are teetering on the cliff’s edge to join them in that undesirable club. A year after losing three straight games to fall to Florida in seven games, they’re staring down a repeat.
Less than a week after a Boston series win seemed like a foregone conclusion, it feels like the Bruins would need a miracle to advance past the Maple Leafs to the second round. The first-round series is 3-3, but there’s nothing even about it now. Toronto has momentum, confidence and the hotter of the goalies.
Boston won’t just be facing the Maple Leafs on Saturday at 8 p.m. at TD Garden. They’re up against a lot more than that.
The Bruins are playing to advance to the second round, but they’re also battling to avoid a disaster. If Boston blows a 3-1 lead for the second straight year, it becomes part of this team’s DNA and part of its legacy.
Their heart and the ability of their star players to deliver will all be questioned if they don’t win. A victory would not produce joy as much as it would relief.
Jim Montgomery might be coaching for his job. It would be hard to fire somebody whose regular-season record has been as good as his has been. But this would be two years in a row that the Bruins collapsed in the playoffs as a higher seed with a big lead. And in both series, specific decisions have come under fire.
At best, he’d start next year on a much hotter seat. Whatever he does or doesn’t do will be under heavy scrutiny on Saturday.
David Pastrnak will come under fire too after a tough series.
Often a sneaky source of wisdom, Charlie McAvoy made a great point earlier in the week.
“You’re against not only your opponent, but human nature too,” he said.
If they win, they can put all of this behind them. Given all the Bruins lost from their 2022-23 roster, getting to the second round would inarguably be a successful season and whatever happens against a higher-seeded Florida team happens with house money. They could go into the 2024-25 season with cap space and optimism about what they’re building.
Lose and everything they do comes under a harsh spotlight. There’s no middle ground.
