During the NHL’s European media tour, Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak revealed what he and the Bruins thought of the Maple Leafs heading into round one.
Minutes into the first overtime of Game 7, Pastrnak broke the hearts of Leafs Nation once again as he flew past Mitch Marner into the Leafs’ zone to pick up a dump-in off the end boards before beating Ilya Samsonov to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory and send them on to the second round of the playoffs.
In recent weeks, the NHL has been on its European media tour and one of their stops included a discussion with Pastrnak, where he was asked about the Bruins’ additions of Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm. Noting that he was excited about the major acquisitions, he also revealed that he and the Bruins actually viewed the Leafs as the better team and saw themselves as the underdogs in the series despite finishing ahead of them in the regular season.
“We proved a lot of people wrong, last year. We were not even supposed to make the playoffs. We beat a better team on paper.”
The Leafs were arguably considered to be the favourites in the series by many, given the firepower up front. Unfortunately, the Leafs dealt with injuries to William Nylander and Auston Matthews at different times, which without a doubt tipped the scales more towards the Bruins’ favour.
Coupled with the lack of production from John Tavares and Mitch Marner and a dismal power-play, the Leafs once again failed to get out of the first round, leading to a number of changes behind the bench and on the roster.
With training camp just a few weeks away, how the rest of the Leafs’ roster shakes up and how Craig Berube shuffles his lines will be a couple of things to keep an eye on as the Leafs prepare for their first year under their new bench boss.
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