BOSTON – It seemed, firstly of Sport 5, as if the Boston Bruins had by no means met one another, by no means skated collectively. They have been fractured, disjointed, hardly ever hanging onto the puck, barely spending time within the offensive zone not to mention the sustained shifts that they’d needed. There have been passes to nobody and turnovers, play that was baffling to anybody who had watched them systematically take down the Toronto Maple Leafs within the earlier two video games. 

It was, in a phrase, complicated.

“We weren’t ok,” coach Jim Montgomery mentioned after the 3-2 time beyond regulation loss in Sport 5. “Simply easy as that. Toronto got here out able to play, they took it to us. We weren’t able to match their desperation.”

After successful two video games in opposition to the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Enviornment in Toronto, the Bruins got here again to Boston with precisely the scenario they needed: up 3-1 within the best-of-7 collection with an opportunity to shut it out at residence on Tuesday and advance to the second spherical. They might be dealing with a Maple Leafs crew that had ended the final sport sniping at one another and which was with out its finest participant, with Auston Matthews unable to play in Sport 5.

All of it appeared completely arrange for a Bruins win. Till the puck dropped. 

“They have been simply higher,” captain Brad Marchand mentioned. “They got here and so they have been keen to go away all of it on the road tonight. We would have liked to be higher than we have been. It’s that straightforward. They have been ready to play and begin the sport, and we weren’t. Sadly, we by no means actually form of bought it collectively all through the sport. 

“It’s on to the subsequent one.”