What Pat Maroon Told Maple Leafs After Bruins’ Game 7 Win

Pat Maroon saw some familiar faces on the opposing bench in the Bruins’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

The Maple Leafs’ Joel Edmundson (St. Louis), Connor Dewar (Minnesota) and Auston Matthews (Team USA) were all once teammates with Maroon before he landed with Boston prior to this season’s NHL trade deadline. The veteran forward shook hands with the trio, as well as the rest of Toronto’s team, Saturday night after the Bruins defeated the Leafs in Game 7 at TD Garden.

A three-time Stanley Cup champion, Maroon knows full well how difficult it is to win a postseason series, let alone the whole thing. The 36-year-old couldn’t help but admire the fight Toronto showed after Boston jumped out to a 3-1 series lead.

“Just telling the guys, ‘Good job. You guys played a really good series,'” Maroon told reporters Saturday, per The Athletic. “It wasn’t one person. But just letting them know they’re a heck of a team. They fought hard until the end. They had some missing key pieces in certain games. They played very well without them in the lineup. They played well with them in the lineup. They did a good job fighting back. But at the end of the day, we came out with the win.”

The Leafs certainly tested the B’s in Round 1, but the Panthers figure to present even more of a challenge in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Florida bounced Boston from the playoffs last season and edged out Jim Montgomery’s side for the Atlantic Division crown this year.

But the Bruins are playing with a great deal of confidence, and they’re entering Round 2 with momentum. Boston will try to get off on the right foot Monday night when it takes the Amerant Bank Arena ice for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.

NESN will air pregame and postgame coverage of the opener, with the former beginning at 7 p.m. ET.