Bruins Still Have Advantage Over Maple Leafs In Playoffs

Don’t get nervous Boston Bruins fans, it’s just another rope-a-dope.

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While it was an incredibly entertaining game that ended with the Toronto Maple Leafs beating the Bruins 6-4 Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena, it’s a regular-season game. Yes, the Maple Leafs are leading the Atlantic Division at this point of the season, and should earn a Stanley Cup playoff berth, but if these two teams face off in the postseason, it will be curtains once again for Toronto.

If Saturday’s game is any indication, a playoff series between the Bruins and the Maple Leafs will no doubt be epic as usual. And, if history continues, the Bruins will have their way once again. Toronto has been so close so many times against Boston, but the Bruins always find a way to win. Maple Leafs fans despise everything about the Bruins.

Where should the conversation begin?

The Bruins have dismissed the Maple Leafs during the playoffs in 2024, 2019, 2018 and 2013. Oh, 2013. It was the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on May 13 at TD Garden. It was Game 7 and the Maple Leafs had a two-goal lead in the final 90 seconds of regulation when the Bruins scored two goals in a span of 31 seconds to send the game into overtime. When the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron scored the game-winning goal in OT it sent this rivalry into a new stratosphere.

That win was the turning point for the Bruins and propelled them towards the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Chicago Blackhawks. No matter how that season ended for the Bruins, that win against the Maple Leafs proved how a team could stay resilient and showed its character during desperate times. Since, the Maple Leafs have had zero luck against the Bruins in the playoffs and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue if the teams play again this spring.

While the Maple Leafs are feeling phenomenal about their victory against Boston Saturday night on home ice, it’s a regular-season game and it won’t translate into the playoffs. If the current playoff structure continues, there’s a strong possibility these teams will meet again in the playoffs and it will be a Sisyphean challenge for the Maple Leafs to win against the Bruins.

Toronto fans should enjoy Saturday’s win for whatever it’s worth. Oh, there’s one more regular-season game on Feb. 25 in Boston, but it will only be a prequel for what could lay ahead in the spring.

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