Is this a dagger which I see before me?
Quoting “Macbeth’’ for a hockey game may be a stretch pass. And forsooth it doth not mean that plunging of the knife in Game 6 was fatally wounding ere Game 7.
But the Bruins are definitely bleeding out in this opening round of the playoffs as a commanding 3-1 series lead has stunningly dissolved, deadlocked now after the Maple Leafs eked and edged out a 2-1 must-win over Boston at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night.
No Auston Matthews still. No problem. Well, actually big problem but not insurmountable apparently. With a Willy-1 performance for Toronto.
And slingshot-ing back to Beantown on Saturday for the denouement of this dramatically unfolding wrangle? No fear there. Leafs have twice won at TD Garden already and Bruins are now zip-6 in their last half-dozen chances to advance in the playoffs. Surely the apprehension is with the un-killer B’s as they take a stumbling trip down recent memory lane, desperate to avert a flashback outcome from last spring, falling to the Panthers in seven after likewise muscling out to 3-1 series control.
That’s Shakespearean, in a sports context. More prosaically and cliché-wise, backs against the wall, Leafs had been, in front of the Joseph Woll. Having a moment, that boy.
“Obviously Joe Woll was outstanding,’’ captain John Tavares summed it up afterward.
Even when he temporarily lost his stick in the second period, Woll held the Bruins at bay during a chaotic goalmouth scrum, albeit drawing a tripping penalty himself within that mess — and then penalty-killed his own penalty. Neat trick that. Midway through the third, Bruins pressing hard, he made four take-your-breath-away saves in a row, then calmly carried on to the horn, unflustered by Boston pulling Jeremy Swayman for extra attacker in the heart-clutch final minutes.
Only with 0.1 seconds left did some rubber slip by him, which mostly went unnoticed by everybody. Morgan Geekie cracked the shutout and that tick of a second was put back on the clock. So, 22 saves on 23 shots.
“It sucks that it didn’t happen,’’ said William Nylander, of the final-heartbeat shutout denial for Woll. “In the end we got the win and that’s what’s super-important. If he would have got the shutout it would have been unreal too. But right now we’re just looking for Ws.’’
Woll: “From my mindset it’s about the win. That’s the most important thing right now. That’s where my head’s at.
“I wasn’t even sure, with the time, what happened. I was just happy when I saw the guys coming towards me and giving me fist-bumps for winning the game.’’
Leafs came into this encounter — in front of a crowd a-roar, proving it can indeed get loud — with their heart in their hands and a headful of steam. Outshot the Bruins 12-1 in the first period, even more dominating than they’d been in the opening 20 in Boston 48 hours earlier. Yet no-way-no-how could they stuff the puck in the net, including on a power play with antagonist Brad Marchand sweating it out in the box for dumping Tyler Bertuzzi.
Morgan Rielly, not for the first time in this series, missed a gaping open cage on the power play, now 1-for-20. Oh, lots of those good “looks’’ that Sheldon Keefe had been banging on about. As the coach had plaintively observed a few hours earlier: “The number starts to balloon and it doesn’t look good and it’s been a major factor in this series. We have no choice but to stay with it. But at some point, the guys have just got to put it over the line … We deserve to have more than we’ve gotten.’’
It would only get worse in the second period when Toronto — handed the gift of a four-minute penalty to David Pastrnak for high-sticking Bertuzzi — couldn’t apply sustained pressure, couldn’t penetrate the wide-out defensive box of Boston’s PK, and connected for a mere two shots on Swayman.
The crowd, rightly disgusted, started to get hostile — SHOOT THE PUCK! SHOOT THE PUCK! SHOOT THE PUCK! Sound advice, rather.
That could have been the game and the series right there. For Boston.
Instead, with under a minute left to play in that frame, Nylander pivoted inside the blue line, dodged a Boston stick and — probably because there was no other option — shot from the side of the faceoff circle for the 1-0 goal that deflected off Charlie McAvoy.
And the crowd went wild, as they say.
Even wilder when Nylander turned the light red again with 2:19 left in regulation time, sent in on a breakaway by Matthew Knies.
Momentum has been difficult to seize and sustain in this series. Certainly there’s been no edge accruing to either team on home ice, with the tension ratcheting up.
“There’s more urgency,’’ Game 5 overtime hero Knies had said earlier, stating the obvious. “Every blocked shot, every puck on net, every play matters a little more.’’
Most of the Leafs crew claim they’re attaching no significance to a déjà  vu scenario for the Bruins. But come on. At least trade deadline acquisition Joel Edmundson — veteran of the mind-blowing St. Louis Blues 2019 team that copped the Cup behind the netminding of rookie Jordan Binnington — cut to the chase.
“When we got down 3-1, that was a topic we brought up,’’ he admitted of Toronto’s disappointing performance in its first two games at home. “It gave us momentum and the positivity that we needed. Anything can happen. We knew it was going to be a long series anyway. So it doesn’t really matter if we were down 3-1 or not, we were just going to keep chipping away.
“Honestly, it just starts with one game, build off that one game and keep it rolling. It’s exciting, you’ve got nothing to lose. There’s no tomorrow if you lose, so put everything on the line, one night at a time.’’
One more night, at least. A Game 7. Willy’s had a few of those.
“It’s special. I don’t know if we’ve won one yet.’’
Nope.
“So we’re up to the test.’’
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