You would think the Boston Bruins’ dominance on the ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs would be enough.
After all, the Bruins’ 2–1 overtime victory Saturday evening in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs’ first round polished off their seventh straight postseason series win over the Maple Leafs. Toronto hasn’t beaten Boston in a playoff series since 1959—eight years before its most recent Stanley Cup title.
However, the Bruins took matters a step further after right wing David Pastrňák’s winner. As Boston celebrated its triumph on the ice, the operators of TD Garden’s Jumbotron gleefully showed footage of a defeated Maple Leaf Square.
Maple Leaf Square, as the name implies, sits adjacent to Scotiabank Arena and is a popular rallying point for Toronto sports fans (basketball-savvy readers may know it as Jurassic Park).
Given the imbalance between Boston and Toronto’s sports success this century, it seems fair to ask: haven’t the latter’s citizens suffered enough?
If a team based in Edmonton, Alberta dominating a North American sports league seems odd in the 2020s, imagine how it must have looked in the greed-is-good 1980s.
That was life for the Edmonton Oilers with center Wayne Gretzky and his contemporaries, during which the team was the class of the hockey world. From their humble World Hockey Association origins—their first game, as the Alberta Oilers, was played against the long-dead Ottawa Nationals—they rose to epitomize a flashy, high-scoring epoch of the sport.
As Edmonton seeks Stanley Cup number six this season, here's a look back at how the Oilers won their first five.
GAME
RESULT
Game 1
Oilers 1, Islanders 0
Game 2
Islanders 6, Oilers 1
Game 3
Oilers 7, Islanders 2
Game 4
Oilers 7, Islanders 2
Game 5
Oilers 5, Islanders 2
A changing of the guard—the New York Islanders had won the last four Stanley Cups and beaten Edmonton the year prior. Gretzky's first title, although Oilers forward Mark Messier won the Conn Smythe Trophy. The first time since the Victoria Cougars' 1925 triumph that the Cup went west of the Central time zone.
GAME
RESULT
Game 1
Flyers 4, Oilers 1
Game 2
Oilers 3, Flyers 1
Game 3
Oilers 4, Flyers 3
Game 4
Oilers 5, Flyers 3
Game 5
Oilers 8, Flyers 3
This series belonged to Gretzky. His seven goals are tied for the fifth-most in any Stanley Cup Finals; all four of the greater totals were recorded in 1922 or earlier. His 47 playoff points are a still-standing record for one postseason, for which he won his first Smythe Trophy.
GAME
RESULT
Game 1
Oilers 4, Flyers 2
Game 2
Oilers 3, Flyers 2 (OT)
Game 3
Flyers 5, Oilers 3
Game 4
Oilers 4, Flyers 1
Game 5
Flyers 4, Oilers 3
Game 6
Flyers 3, Oilers 2
Game 7
Oilers 3, Flyers 1
A legendary series between two 100-point teams in the regular season. The Flyers won Game 3 after trailing 3-0, the first such comeback in Stanley Cup Finals history. Philadelphia led Game 7 1-0 after just 1:41, but goals by Messier, right wing Jari Kurri and right wing Glenn Anderson gave Edmonton the title.
GAME
RESULT
Game 1
Oilers 2, Bruins 1
Game 2
Oilers 4, Bruins 2
Game 3
Oilers 6, Bruins 3
Game 4
Oilers 6, Bruins 3
A notable series for precisely two reasons. First, Game 4 was suspended during the second period—and ultimately relocated to and replayed in Edmonton—after the power went out at Boston Garden. Second, after scoring a goal and recording two assists in the clincher, Gretzky never played another game for the Oilers.
GAME
RESULT
Game 1
Oilers 3, Bruins 2 (3OT)
Game 2
Oilers 7, Bruins 2
Game 3
Bruins 2, Oilers 1
Game 4
Oilers 5, Bruins 1
Game 5
Oilers 4, Bruins 1
Edmonton's only Stanley Cup after trading Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings on Aug. 9, 1988; the Oilers swept the Kings on their way to the Finals. Game 1 is still the longest-ever Stanley Cup Finals game. Goalie Bill Ranford won the Smythe Trophy, the only major individual accolade of his career.
Before he made the TD Garden crowd jump out of their seats on Saturday night, David Pastrnak's own seat was rather hot.
The 10-year NHL veteran—and two-time All-Star—was called out by Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery following his second straight scoreless effort in Game 6, also Boston's second straight loss in the series.
"Your best players need to be your best players this time of year," Montgomery said. "I think the effort is tremendous and they need to come through with some big-time plays in big-time moments. I think Marchand has done that in the series. Pasta needs to step up."
Step up, Pastrnak did, as he was there when the Bruins, who defeated the Maple Leafs 2—1 to advance to the second round, needed him most.
Locked in a tight battle with the Maple Leafs that saw the teams go two full periods without a goal scored, Pastrnak, with 1:54 remaining in overtime, skated past the Maple Leafs defense and showed off some nifty stick work, scoring on a backhand shot after an assist from Hampus Lindholm to win the game—and the series—for Boston.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Pastrnak had a commendable response when asked about being called out by Montgomery.
"Jimmy, you know, he said the stuff he did after Game 6," Pastrnak said. "And I told him, 'If I'm the coach and you were me, I would say the same things,' so I had no problem with him saying that."
"He's trying to bring the best out of every single player and he expects more. I just took it as a man and tried to be better. I admitted I need to be better and I still have ways to be better."
Pastrnak, 27, scored three goals in the series. The Bruins will next take on the Florida Panthers on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET.
In 2019, SI's S.L. Price christened the Toronto Maple Leafs' plight "one of the world’s last great championship droughts."
That sentiment will hold true for another year.
The Maple Leafs lost 2–1 in overtime Saturday to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the two teams' first round series, ensuring that Toronto will remain Stanley Cup-less as it has every year since 1967.
More immediately, in extended the Maple Leafs' infamous streak of Game 7 losses to six—four of which have come to the Bruins in 2013, '18, '19 and now '24.
All four of those losses came in Boston.
Maple Leafs have lost 6 straight Game 7s, with 4 of them coming on the road against the Bruins. Their last Game 7 win was in 2004 vs Senators
Boston right wing David Pastrňák netted the winner at 1:54 of the overtime to send the Bruins to the second round, where they will meet the Florida Panthers. The goal came after a wild sequence where Toronto nearly won the game late in regulation.
Clutch stop by Swayman in the dying seconds of regulation 🛑
Watch Game 7 OT between the Leafs and Bruins on Sportsnet or stream on Sportnet+. pic.twitter.com/pmcEIJTMgs
