Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand believes the Toronto Maple Leafs have surpassed the Montreal Canadiens as the team’s biggest rival.
Boston is set to face the Maple Leafs in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on April 20. It is the third time in seven years that the teams will play each other in the playoffs which is why Marchand calls Toronto Boston’s biggest rival.
“You see the excitement they have all throughout Canada when they’re in playoffs. Makes it a lot of fun to play them. And I think, just with the history we’ve had with them recently, they’re probably our biggest rival right now over the last decade,” Marchand said to NHL.com.
“They’ve probably surpassed Montreal and any other team with kind of where our rivalry’s gone, just because we’ve both been so competitive with each other, and we’ve had a few playoff series. It definitely brings the emotion, the intensity, up in the games and the excitement for the fans. It’s a lot of fun to play them,” Marchand continued.
In the 2023-24 NHL regular season, Boston defeated Toronto in all four meetings. But, the playoffs are a different game.
“They’re always extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “You never know which way the series is going to go. But that’s what you want. That’s what you love about hockey is the competition aspect. They’re real competitors over there, especially the way they’re built right now. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s what playoffs is about. It’s about the best teams going head-to-head.”
Bruins Not Overlooking Maple Leafs
Despite Boston winning all four games against Toronto this season, the Bruins aren’t overlooking the Maple Leafs going into the series.
Charlie Coyle, a forward for the Bruins compliments Toronto’s roster and knows they can score plenty of goals in a hurry. Yet, Coyle remains confident that Boston can handle the Maple Leafs offense.
“They have a lot of great players, skill players, who play hard and can be very dangerous around the net and create scoring opportunities,” Coyle said. “You’ve just got to be aware of who’s out there and who you’re against, who you’re matched up against, and play hard. Also, too, we’ve got to focus on our game and what we do well and when we do that, we trust each other and have that belief in each other, we’re a pretty good hockey team.”
“They’ll be a (heck) of a challenge,” Marchand added.
Boston’s Past Success Against Toronto in the Playoffs
When the puck drops on April 20, it will mark the fourth time in the past 11 years that Boston and Toronto have met in the playoffs.
The Bruins have won the series in all four meetings, including the incredible Game 7 comeback in 2013, in a game that Boston trailed 4-1 in the third period.
The last time Toronto and Boston met in the playoffs was in 2019 when the Bruins eliminated the Maple Leafs in Game 7 in the first round. The last time Toronto beat Boston in a playoff series was in the 1959 Stanley Cup playoffs as the Bruins won the last six series.
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