Boston Bruins Will Feel At Home In Toronto Hub

The Boston Bruins will be one of twelve teams from the Eastern Conference travelling to Toronto at the end of the month to take part in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Although the top team in the NHL lost home-ice advantage due to the COVID-19 pause, the Bruins will play in a building that has been quite good to them over the years.

In fact, since Game 7 of their 2013 playoff series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins are 5-4 at Scotiabank Arena. That includes one of the biggest wins for the veteran core group of the Bruins. Last time the Bruins played a playoff game in Toronto, they were facing elimination on Easter Sunday, 2019.

Down 3-2 in the series, the Bruins put on a clinic to keep their season alive against the Maple Leafs. Brad Marchand scored three points (2 g, 1 a), while Torey Krug scored a key goal that gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead they would not lose.

The rest is history, of course. The Bruins would again win Game 7 at home, and would go on to eliminate the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes en route to an Eastern Conference Championship.

“We’ve played well in that rink in the playoffs, for the most part. So that’s a positive,” Bruce Cassidy said in a video call on Monday. “There’s 12 teams from the East, so the chances you’re going to bump into them, who knows? That would be speculation. I think it is an advantage.”

It doesn’t matter if the Boston Bruins don’t run into the Maple Leafs. They feel good about how they’ve performed in the building.

Tuukka Rask has a .926 all-situations save percentage in Toronto in nine postseason appearances. He has allowed 23 goals on 312 shots. Jaroslav Halak, meanwhile, has never played in a postseason game in Toronto.

Patrice Bergeron is the team’s leading regular-season scorer in Toronto. He’s scored 29 points (6 g, 23 a) in 33 games.