Buckley: Bruins' leadership and history are great, but they'll need desperation to oust Leafs

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BOSTON — It took a while for Jeremy Swayman to settle in front of his dressing stall late Tuesday night for a postgame session with the media, this after the Bruins' 2-1 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden.

When the goaltender finally spoke, his words were filled with so much emotion and patriotic heft it was as though the Bruins would be returning to Toronto on Thursday night not for a mere playoff game, but to continue a crusade in defense of all that's good in the world.

Asked what it is about the Bruins that inspires Swayman to believe he and his teammates can move past a loss that would have clinched this opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series, Swayman ticked off the reasons:

"Our leadership, first and foremost," he said. "The history of this team. The city that we represent. And the people in this locker room. The coaching staff through and through. Our management. Everyone is a great human being and wants the best for one another. That's contagious. And there's no other team that I'd rather play for with that kind of integrity, work ethic and all-around good people."

GO DEEPER

Why the Bruins couldn't eliminate the Maple Leafs in Game 5: 5 takeaways

Good on Swayman for being a stand-up guy after submitting a standout performance, especially in the first period as the determined Maple Leafs were outshooting the Bruins 12-2. Alas, the fatal flaw in Swayman's otherwise fine postgame oratory is that it omits the obvious, which is that pretty much everything he said could have applied to the Maple Leafs.

Here's a franchise with a proud history, except that for decades the Leafs have been mostly invisible come Stanley Cup tourney time. Plus, they came into Tuesday night's Game 5 trailing in the series 3-1, meaning potential elimination was just 60 minutes of hockey away. Plus, they're without Auston Matthews, he of the 69 regular-season goals.

So what happens? With old-timey Big, Bad Bruin Derek Sanderson in the building to serve as honorary banner captain and the hometown crowd fired up to see the Bruins take care of business, it was the Maple Leafs who played with purpose.

"The crowd was incredible," Swayman said. "And we thrive off that energy."

During the regular season, yes. Tuesday night, not so much.

You want to talk desperation? Consider not just that the Maple Leafs scored the first goal, but how they scored it and who scored it. Max Domi won a faceoff and got the puck back to Jake McCabe, who sent a shot through a screen and past Swayman at 5:33 of the first period. For Boston fans hungering to see the Bruins win their first Stanley Cup since 2011, McCabe can identify: In this, his 11th season in the NHL, it was his first career playoff goal. Spending most of your career wasting away with the Buffalo Sabres will do that.

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The Bruins were tentative and awkward for most of the first period, getting only one shot off after just under 14 minutes. But that's when Trent Frederic tied it, thanks to some solid forechecking by Jesper Boqvist and a clearing attempt by Simon Benoit that took a sweet bounce off Pat Maroon. Sanderson-to-Bobby Orr it was not, but it was enough to unwind the uptight Bruins.

But the score remained unchanged through regulation. Things went to overtime, but only 2 minutes, 26 seconds were off the clock when Matthew Knies won it for the Maple Leafs when he gobbled up a rebound in front of the Boston net and put a shot past Swayman.

Bruins coach Jim Montgomery didn't wait to ask what went wrong. He volunteered information.

"We weren't good enough," he said. "Simple as that. Toronto came out ready to play, they took it to us. We weren't ready to match their desperation."

And then he said this: "Our emotion didn't match theirs."

🎥 Coach Montgomery, Brad Marchand, Trent Frederic, and Jeremy Swayman react following the #NHLBruins Game 5 loss to Toronto: pic.twitter.com/Zn8IH2dgef

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 1, 2024

Yes, it's possible for two things to be true at the same time. Swayman can be right about the Bruins and their leadership and the history and the city and the people in the locker room and how everyone is a great human being … and Montgomery can be right when he says, in so many words, that his boyos didn't show up Tuesday night.

What's particularly interesting about that — and also terrifying, if you happen to be a Bruins fan — is that there was a fun little storyline that by the close of business Tuesday night at TD Garden had been crumpled up and tossed into the recycling bin. The Bruins could have closed out their opening-round series on the first anniversary of last year's Game 7 opening-round loss to the Florida Panthers. How cool would that have been for B's fans? Redemption!

Instead, it was Turn Back the Clock Night at TD Garden. On April 30, 2024, the Bruins reminded their fans that on April 30, 2023, they were eliminated by the Panthers in a series they once led three games to one. Just as the Bruins once led three games to one in this series against the Maple Leafs, a team with leadership and the history and the city and people in the locker room who happen to be great human beings.

In other words, the teams look evenly matched in those areas. What it will come down to is which team plays with the greater amount of desperation.

In Tuesday's Game 5, the Maple Leafs won that battle.

(Photo of the Bruins' Hampus Lindholm battling with the Maple Leafs' John Tavares: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)