Bruins in familiar territory against Maple Leafs in Game 7

TORONTO -- The Boston Bruins know this feeling.
They know what it's like to go to Game 7, to feel nerves and excitement and panic and overwhelming need all at once. They have done this before, over and over. Nine times in the previous 10 seasons they have played in a do-or-die game.

Boston made it 10 times in 11 seasons after losing 3-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Air Canada Centre on Monday.
RELATED: [Complete Bruins vs. Maple Leafs series coverage]
Game 7 will be at TD Garden on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS, NESN).
Four of the current Bruins - Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Tuukka Rask - were on that team back in 2008 (though, to be fair, Bergeron played 10 games and Rask played four) that forced a Game 7 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens. They lost 5-0.
The Bruins would win others, including three in their run to the Stanley Cup in 2011, culminating with a 4-0 win against the Vancouver Canucks on the road.
And, of course, there was the Game 7 against the Maple Leafs in 2013, when the series played out exactly the way the current series has, with the Bruins going up 3-1, losing the next two games, and heading home to Boston for Game 7 (they won 5-4 in OT).
So these Bruins have been here. And the others, the rookies, will learn. They will be told in the 48 hours leading up to the game, and they will learn in the 60 (or more) minutes of play.

"It's all about one game," Chara said.
That is undeniable.
But this could have been over already. Perhaps it should have been.
The Bruins have had a number of chances. After having 45 shots and 90 attempts in Game 5, the Bruins had 33 shots and 72 attempts in Game 6, compared to 30 and 43 for the Maple Leafs.
"We have to score is what we've got to do different," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I could stand up here and say, well, our goalie, it would be great if he goes and pitches a shutout, but putting it all on your goalie is not the way to go about it."
Boston has had the possession. It has had the shots. Toronto has had goaltender Frederik Andersen.
"I think we're getting a lot of really quality looks, a lot of good opportunities," forward Brad Marchand said. "He's making some good saves. He's a good goalie. It's bound to happen. So we just have to keep going, yeah. We've got to keep doing more of the same."
Andersen has been outstanding in the past two games, making 74 saves on 78 shots and stoning the Bruins on chances they would normally bury, including a brilliant stick save with 53 seconds remaining in the first period on David Backes with Rick Nash also in front.
Then the Maple Leafs scored, tying the game 1-1 with a rebound goal by William Nylander at 1:37 of the second period, 35 seconds after the Bruins made it 1-0. Mitchell Marner scored the eventual game-winner at 13:25 of the second to make it 2-1, and Tomas Plekanec sealed it at 18:46 of the third period with an empty-net goal.
But the Bruins have to let go of all those chances, all those missed opportunities.

"You can't think about it," Bergeron said. "Right now, that's the position we're in. We've got to be better. We've got to find a way. We've got to put some more traffic, find a way to get those goals. It's all about the next game, obviously."
One team will go home after Game 7, and one will move on to face the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"You want to be in these moments in your life," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "You don't remember everything in your life. What you do is, you remember moments. And you want to create those moments. You want to create memories."
The Bruins hope it will be them creating the memories. They believe it should be.
"Listen, it's Game 7," Cassidy said. "The Bruins won the Cup in 2011, they went through it three times. So our guys have certainly lived it."
They have, and they will live it again on Wednesday. They hope history repeats itself, at least the history of 2011, or 2013, seasons where they survived Game 7 and continued on to the Stanley Cup Final.
"If anybody would have told us at the start of the year that we're going to be in Game 7, first round, at home, we'd take it," Marchand said. "Obviously it's tough, given the position we were in. But we're going to look forward to the next game. That's all we can control. Same with them. Whatever's happened the last six games really doesn't mean anything."