TORONTO – The Bruins played arguably their best all-around game of the playoff series with their backs against the wall on Sunday afternoon after finishing up a 4-2 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 6 at Scotiabank Arena.
So the Bruins and Maple Leafs will convene for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday night at TD Garden, and normally that would spell doom for the hockey club from Toronto. After all the Bruins eliminated the Leafs in a Game 7 in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs during a memorable comeback and vanquished Toronto again last spring with a dominant third period in a Game 7 win over them in Boston as well.
But the current first round series has been a strange one with the home teams losing three of the three games that they've each played thus far, and the Bruins having been held to just a single goal in two of the three games played in Boston thus far. Most Bruins players didn't really have an explanation for it after Game 6, but perhaps Brad Marchand has figured it out after putting together a two-goal performance in Sunday afternoon's must-win for the Black and Gold.
Without any real prompting, Marchand tore into the ice surface at TD Garden that's suffered in quality lately as the hotter, humid springtime temperatures have turned it bouncy and untrue. Or as Marchand said postgame, it's "terrible."
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"They've played really well in our building so far this series and the ice has been terrible there so we might as well play with a tennis ball, skate around and see who can bounce one in the net," said Marchand.
Will it be any better on Tuesday night?
The Bruins had better hope so as it's clear that the ice conditions have favored the Maple Leafs to this point in the series when things have turned back to Boston.
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