Bruins focused, flying in Game 1 win against Maple Leafs

BOSTON -- The last week of the regular season was a bad one for the Boston Bruins. They lost four of five games, including a couple of winnable ones on the road, and missed a chance to take the Atlantic Division and earn home ice throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

That disappointment, though, was gone by the time the puck was dropped on Thursday at a raucous TD Garden, with the Bruins having a chance to make amends to begin what they hope will be a lengthy playoff run. They had left it behind, along with the regular season, along with any remaining frustration or exhaustion or sense of missed opportunity.
They came out flying.
They came out with confidence.
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They left the ice with confidence, too, a nonchalance born of experience and veteran savvy, knowing that they had said something about themselves and about the Toronto Maple Leafs and about the way they want this Eastern Conference First Round to go, in a 5-1 dismantling of the Maple Leafs in Game 1.
And then, after the game, they did not boast. They did not claim they had made a statement.
"We've got one down," goaltender Tuukka Rask said. "A lot more to go."
Later he said, "It's one game. I'll enjoy it for an hour now, and then get ready for Saturday tomorrow."

Still, it said something, this win. It said that the Bruins are not the team that, tired and run-down, finished the regular season on a sour note. It said that they are the team that defied most expectations and had 112 points, fourth most in the NHL.
It said that Auston Matthews is still young, and that Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand and David Krejci have been there, have won the Stanley Cup (in 2011), and thus know how to do it.
It did not say that Boston will win the series. It did not guarantee anything. But it did knock the Maple Leafs back, perhaps mess with their heads, alert them that nothing will come easy in this series.
"I think as a collective unit we all just looked at each other and said it's time to go out there and do our thing and not be distracted by anything," Bruins forward David Backes said.
Boston had spent the past few days talking about how it needed to start well. The Bruins did exactly that, taking a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal at 5:28 of the first period by Marchand.

But they also saw the Maple Leafs wrench back momentum, beginning with a highlight-reel forehand-to-backhand goal by Zach Hyman at 16:52 on which he outskated and outpowered Krejci and defenseman Charlie McAvoy. Toronto got the upper hand for a while but could not sustain it, even through two early power plays in the second period.
"They made a push but, again, [it was a] good character response to be able to get back to our game, get back to our principles," Backes said.
The Bruins took back the lead with a Backes power-play goal at 15:43 of the second, extended it with a David Pastrnak dagger with 38 seconds remaining in the period. And then, at least for the Maple Leafs, it turned ugly. Sean Kuraly batted the puck out of the air for a goal at 7:41 of the third, and there was yet another power-play goal, by Krejci, at 11:29.
The Bruins had taken a four-goal lead and command and had shown a generally young Maple Leafs team exactly who they are and have been for most of the season.
"To me, when you get beat you just sort of regroup," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "We have a day to solve our problems and we can feel sorry for ourselves here tonight, but that's a waste of time and energy."
The Maple Leafs will need to regroup by Saturday, for Game 2 at TD Garden (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVAS). They will need to find a way forward. Because the Bruins were the better team Thursday, no question. They weren't distracted. They weren't pondering what could have been, had they won any of those four games.
They were laser focused. They were ready.

They did what they needed to do, pushing the Maple Leafs, exerting pressure and wielding their power play and their first line like weapons. Not that they were overconfident after the game.
After all, they've been here before. They know what it's like to begin a series this way. They know what it means.
"It's a good start," Marchand said, "but it doesn't mean much."