After losing three of their final four games of the regular season, the Boston Bruins went from winning the Atlantic Division to finishing second. By finishing behind the Florida Panthers, that meant a first-round matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs instead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The concerning part of those losses was how they lost those games, scoring a combined two goals in the three losses to the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, and Ottawa Senators.
If there was a team that needed the three-day break between the regular season final and the start of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was the Bruins. For one night, the Black and Gold got back to their structured game, paying very close attention to their details, assignments, and overall performance. In the end, they took a 1-0 series lead with a 5-1 victory in Game 1 over Toronto at the TD Garden. Here are three takeaways from the Bruins win.
Jeremy Swayman Came up Big in Net
It’s playoff time so that means one thing, injuries are not revealed, coaches play games without announcing lineups and that includes goaltenders. Second-year Boston coach Jim Montgomery did not reveal his starting goalie until right before the game. One of the biggest decisions he had, he appeared to make the right decision for Game 1 with Jeremy Swayman.
Swayman was good all season for the Bruins, but he was really good against the Maple Leafs. He won all three starts during the regular season with a .959 save percentage (SV%) and right from the drop of the puck, he was on his game. He made several saves before the Bruins opened the scoring and was tracking the puck well all night long. Toronto had a power play to start the second period and he made some early key saves to keep it a 1-0 Boston lead until his teammates scored three goals later in the period. He finished with a playoff career-high 35 saves and a David Kampf third-period goal away from a shutout.
Jake DeBrusk, Have a Night
If there has been one thing about the 2023-24 Bruins season, most nights when Jake DeBrusk was in the lineup, he was either a big factor or barely noticeable. Seriously, either you notice him out there shift after shift or you had to look long and far to make sure he’s even playing. In Game 1, the 14th overall pick of the 2015 Entry Draft had a night that Boston has been waiting for in the postseason.
DeBrusk never had a three-point game all season long and in Game 1, he not only had a three-point game, he had it in the second period. He set up Brandon Carlo with the first of three second-period goals for the Black and Gold, then scored on the power play with a wrist shot from the left circle. Two minutes and 32 seconds after his first power-play goal, he scored the second man-advantage goal of the period when he redirected a Brad Marchand shot toward the net and after Ilya Samsonov made the initial save, the rebound found the back of the net off the Toronto goalie.
Toronto had the high-end offensive talent in this series and after David Pastrnak, the Bruins needed to get depth scoring to win the series and for one night, DeBrusk provided that in the second period with his first three-point game of the season at the right time when they needed it.
John Beecher’s Impressive Playoff Debut
As most rookies do, John Beecher hit a wall in the middle of the season and the grind of an 82-game regular season appeared to catch up with him. He was sent down to the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) to get more confidence. He was in and out of the Boston lineup recently and Montgomery put him in the lineup for Game 1 and what a decision that turned out to be.
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Beecher opened the scoring just 2:26 into the game when he one-timed a pass from Jesper Boqvist on a 2-on-1 past Samsonov. Beecher was also strong at the face-off dot winning 60% (6-for-10) of his draws and played a big part late in the second period on the Maple Leafs’ second power play opportunity of the game with a key face-off win and clear later after Toronto was supplying pressure. In the third period, he cleared the puck out of the defensive end while the Maple Leafs were on the power play and nursing a three-goal lead. The former University of Michigan standout belongs in the lineup going forward.
Winning Game 1 was big for the Bruins, but now they face a bigger Game 2 Monday night (April 22) at the TD Garden before the series shifts to Toronto for Games 3 and 4. The Maple Leafs still have a lot of offensive firepower and are capable of bouncing back, but for one night, the Bruins put together a performance that they were looking for over the final two weeks, a workman-like 60-minute effort.
