Boston Bruins: Remembering Game Seven Against Toronto
Three years ago, the Boston Bruins were fighting for their lives against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Black and Gold were ten minutes away from a disappointing game seven home loss at the TD Garden. Somehow, the Big Bad Bruins found themselves halfway through the third period. They came back swinging and pulled off one of the best reversals in recent hockey history.
The Boston Bruins were down 4-1 late in the third. Nathan Horton got the team back with two goals. The Bruins pulled Tuukka Rask near the end, and the B’s responded with skill. Milan Lucic found his fifth gear, and closed the gap to one with just 1:22 left.
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The rest of game seven should have been known as the Patrice Bergeron show. The Bruins alternate captain fired a laser through the Toronto team and past a Zdeno Chara screen to tie the game up with under a minute in regulation. Then he made the magic happen again in overtime, helping the Bruins on the path to their second Stanley Cup Finals appearance in just three years.
The fans were ecstatic. The entire city of Boston turned upside down (without all that pesky rioting you would see in Vancouver) in jubilation. While the team and the city were vibrating with energy, they had nothing on one local commentator.
That commentator was Jack Edwards. If you’ve heard a Bruins game, you’ve heard Jack. Some people love him, some people hate him. But the man has style. To someone watching the game on the New England Sports Network (NESN), it sounded like someone was giving Edwards a double espresso with triple sugar every time the Bruins scored a goal. As the Bruins comeback seemed more inevitable, Jack Edwards got that much more hyper.
By the end, you weren’t quite sure if Edwards was going to make it through the rest of the evening alive and well.
In the end, Toronto fans were dumbfounded by the loss. What started off as Toronto’s return to the postseason ended as the Maple Leafs self-destructed in a way only a Canadian team can do in the NHL.
Even the Canadian commentary crew at SportsNet was slightly agog by Boston’s comeback. But they called it right. An inexperienced Leafs team tried to play Boston’s game and the only thing that got them was an early tee-time back in Toronto.
That was a great night for Boston sports history. But it won’t be long before the Black and Gold give us another great anniversary to rally around (June 15th is coming up fast).