The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs know each other well. They share a division and have gone the distance in three head-to-head playoff series in the last seven years.
So after the B’s eliminated the Leafs in Game 7 on Tuesday night at TD Garden, there was a whole lot of respect shown between the sides, starting at the top with Boston general manager Don Sweeney and his Toronto equal, Kyle Dubas.
“I told Kyle he’s building a hell of a team there,” Sweeney told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun of his postgame handshake with Dubas.
“You got to give that team a lot of credit,” the Bruins GM added, per LeBrun, after Boston’s 5-1, series-clinching victory. “That’s a dangerous hockey club. They’re a talented hockey club. We knew it was going to be a tough series right from the get-go. …
“But that’s a hell of a hockey club.”
Toronto pushed Boston to the brink of elimination with a win in Game 5, but the Bruins dug deep and rattled off back-to-back victories — one north of the border and one in their own building — to secure a second-round date with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
While the Leafs will be raked over the coals for falling again to the Bruins, the reality is Toronto played well for most of the series, which certainly lived up to the hype. The Bruins finished second in the Atlantic Division behind the Tampa Bay Lightning with 108 points, while the Maple Leafs finished third with 100 points, and next year’s race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs could be even more competitive.
“This division is not going to get any easier,” Sweeney told LeBrun. “But in the moment, you’re happy that you’re moving on. We’ll worry about down the road, down the road. But it won’t get any easier, I’ll tell you that.”
Hats off to the Leafs for (again) giving Boston all it could handle. And hats off to the Bruins for (again) rising to the occasion under pressure.
