BOSTON -- The Bruins drew first blood and made a major statement Thursday night.
They scored three power-play goals, got a great game from their top line, received some production fron the fourth line with a Sean Kuraly goal, kept Auston Matthews under wraps, and fully exploited Toronto's defense -- and goalie Frederik Andersen -- in a 5-1 Game 1 triumph over the Maple Leafs. It was closer, perhaps, than the score indicated, but it was nonetheless a decisive victory.
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Still, as hard as it might be not to get excited, the Bruin veterans attempted to keep things in perspective.
“It’s tough to win, you know, in the regular season, and then it becomes tougher to win in the playoffs," said Tuukka Rask, who made 26 saves. "So we got one down . . . [with] and a lot more to go."
Fifteen more to go, to be precise, if they hope to hoist the Stanley Cup at the end of it all. That's looking far ahead, but the Bruins clearly broke through their end-of-the-regular-season malaise and jumped right into the postseason with the kind of energetic mastery that prompts dreams of those 15 victories.
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"It’s definitely not going to get any easier, but I think we played a solid game,” said Rask. “[But] it’s one game. I enjoy it for an hour now and then get ready for [Game 2]. It’s just going day-by-day, I guess. It doesn’t really change a whole lot for our mindset.”
The Bruins again scored first to improve their record to 30-2-6 this season when they draw first blood, and again they got All-World performances from Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak on their top line:
"They cranked it up, and we didn't answer," said Toronto defenseman Ron Hainsey.
As for the Maple Leafs, coach Mike Babcock and his players will try to make adjustments to attack a Bruins team that looked pretty airtight in Game 1.
"We've got a day to solve our problems," Babcock said. "We could feel sorry for ourselves if we want tonight, but that's a waste of time and energy."
