It’s been nearly five years since the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins faced off in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, yet the familiarity is still as prevalent as ever. Over the past eleven years these teams have met in the postseason on three separate occasions. Arguably each meeting getting increasingly more heartbreaking for fans of the six. The first of these meetings in the 2013 lockout season was expected to be a Bruins walkover and perhaps with the power of hindsight the Leafs loyal wish that it was.
For the fourth time in 12 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins meet in the first round of the playoffs. (@EmmySadler)
Series preview presented by @HyundaiCanada. https://t.co/SyNL3DInoj
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 19, 2024
Against all odds the Maple Leafs managed to push Boston to the brink in a seven game series in which Toronto had a three goal third period lead. As the voice of Boston, Jack Edwards put it: “They’ve stabbed the dagger and ripped it out of the heart of the Toronto Maple Leafs”. Fast forward five years, the two teams would once again meet in round one with a far deeper Leafs team, yet history would repeat itself and they would fall in the seventh game in Boston’s TD garden. Any guesses as to what happened when Toronto got their rematch the following year? You got it, once again Leafs nation was left high and dry from falling to Boston in game seven. Boston however, wasn’t Toronto’s only problem as the Leafs would fall in seven games to Montreal and Tampa, extending their 19 year first round curse. That was until last year where Toronto finally slayed one of their demons and defeated the Lightning in six games to send them to the second round. Meanwhile in Boston, the Bruins were just 59 seconds away from a Eastern semi final date with the Leafs before ironically in Toronto fashion choking to the Florida Panthers.
Despite the respective fanbases getting teased last year, Boston and Toronto will have their fourth showdown on opening night of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now that we know how we got here, why is this year different? Well for starters Toronto in each of the previous matchups were labeled as young, inexperienced, and soft. Keeping in mind the Leafs had one of their weaker regular seasons in recent memory, you could make a very strong argument that this Toronto team is built for playoff hockey. Off-season acquisitions of depth grit players like Max Domi and former Bruin Tyler Bertuzzi are expected to be key difference makers if Toronto is to beat their demons. In addition the emergence of young stars like Nicholas Robertson and Matthew Knies alongside 69 goal scorer (nice) Auston Matthews put Toronto as a lethal offensive threat to a relatively shallow Bruins forward core. Although Boston has the edge on the defensive end with superstar Charlie McAvoy and an elite goaltending tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, Ilya Samsonov has been known to show up big for Toronto when needed most. The Leafs high end talent; Rielly, Tavares, and Nylander will need to continue to show up in the playoffs as they have in previous years if Toronto wants a chance at breaking down this systematically strong Boston team. The key to success for Toronto in this series will be to outscore the Bruins while getting a big save or two from their netminder when needed. Make no mistake the Bruins are walking into this as the favorite, however Toronto has more at stake here looking to conquer their final Demon the Boston Bruins.