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May 13, 2013 has been burned in the memories of Toronto Maple Leafs fans (in part because NHL Network and other outlets will never stop showing the game) and that may not be forgotten even after the club wins a Stanley Cup. The collapse that occurred with Toronto leading by three goals with less than 11 minutes to go in the third period in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins ranks among the greatest collapses in sports history, but on the seventh anniversary of that epic fail, it may be time to ask the question ‘how did that team get a 4-1 lead in the first place’ instead of ‘how did they blow it’?
While it is true that the best team does not always win in the playoffs, Boston was heavily favored going into the series over Toronto, who had made the playoffs for the first time since 2004 in a lockout-shortened 48-game season.
May 13, 2013: The Bruins come back from 4-1 down in the 3rd, including two goals in the final two minutes, to force OT where they beat Toronto 5-4 in Game 7 of the ECQF pic.twitter.com/V11SWk31eV
— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) May 13, 2020
The Bruins were pretty much the same club that won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and lost to Washington in a first-round upset in 2012, with the core group of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Zdeno Chara and quality supporting pieces in Milan Lucic, young Tyler Seguin, Nathan Horton, Dennis Seidenberg and Johnny Boychuk. Tuukka Rask took over from Tim Thomas as the #1 goalie and GM Peter Chiarelli added veteran Jaromir Jagr in a deadline deal from Dallas.
The Leafs under Randy Carlyle finished 6th in the NHL in goals scored (145), with most of their offense coming from the top line of Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk, who moved up in the lineup after Joffrey Lupul was injured early in the season. Nazem Kadri had a breakout season with 44 points, but Toronto’s supporting cast of Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur underachieved.
Boston was a top-flight defensive club under Claude Julien (allowing only 109 goals-against), while Toronto was barely middle-of-the-pack and in the playoffs relied heavily on their top-four D of Dion Phaneuf, Carl Gunnarsson, Cody Franson, and Jake Gardiner in front of James Reimer.
The Bruins opened the series with a 4-1 win at home, Toronto evened it up with a 4-2 victory at TD Garden, Boston took both games at Air Canada Centre to push the Leafs to the brink of elimination, but Toronto responded with a pair of 2-1 wins in Games 5 and 6 to force a seventh and deciding game.
Toronto’s top players did not let them down in the deciding game, as Franson, Kessel, Kadri and van Riemsdyk each had two points to seemingly put the game out of reach in the third, but Carlyle’s squad appeared to run out of gas after playing with a short bench late in the series and relying on players not suited to holding a lead finally caught up to him late in regulation.
The Leafs essentially played with nine forwards in Game 7 (Colborne saw less than 12 minutes ice time in the game, rookie Leo Komarov played 8:23 and enforcer Colton Orr just 6:09). In the third, Carlyle hardly used his bottom pairing of Ryan O’Byrne (2:50) and John-Michael Liles (3:20), the top four D all played over eight minutes, while Grabvoski (8:20) and Kulemin (7:16) led all forwards.
In the end, Grabovski was on the ice for four of the five Bruins goals, Gardiner, Kulemin and Franson for three, and with Rask pulled in the final minute, Toronto’s unit to hold on to the lead did not include a defensively sound Komarov, but van Riemsdyk (who has never been known for his defensive prowess), fourth liner Jay McClement and Kulemin, who was on for a nearly two minute shift.
The overriding opinion of the Bruins comeback and victory was that it was miraculous. While that may be so, if you look at the flaws and injuries that particular Leafs club had, it is just as much a miracle that they got to a point where they had their fate in their hands.
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