First off, man oh man it has to really be tough to be a Maple Leafs fan these days. It seems like beating Toronto in game 7’s is turning into a tradition for the Bruins. First in 2013, then last season in 2018, now once again it’s despair for the blue and white faithful.
Now that that’s behind us, we can move onto John Tortorella and the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team that did the beyond unthinkable, and swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. Was it a fluke? I’m not so sure. Backed by Sergei Bobrovski who’s a frequent Vezina candidate, matched with an offense that contains names like Panarin, Duchene, Foligno, Texier, Dubinski, and Jenner, that is an incredibly fast and dangerous offense. The Blue Jackets are also a team that’s quick to move from defense to offense, a style similar to Toronto.
There’s a major factor coming into this series, and that is Columbus will be coming off a much more substantial amount of rest. That could play one of two ways: the first being they will be much more well rested and will have fresh legs coming into this series, or it could throw off the rhythm that they had found which devastated Tampa Bay.
If the Bruins want to disrupt Columbus they need to stick to what they know, which is cycling the puck, fluidity through the neutral zone, and major contributions from all four lines. The games the Bruins lost against Toronto, their fourth line, which is their energy line, wasn’t in sync. If Boston is able to run all four lines effectively and disrupt Columbus’ flow going from defense to offense, they’ll be able to frustrate John Tortorella and everyone in Columbus.
If the Bruins can fight their way past this series, I think a Stanley Cup coming back to the Garden becomes a very real possibility.

My prediction: Bruins in 6

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