A brush with death gave more life to the teams set to play for the Stanley Cup.
The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks each took their game to a new level after defiantly staving off elimination earlier in the post-season.
And with both teams playing on borrowed time in a series that begins Wednesday night in Chicago, there’s no reason to expect this best-of-seven final to wrap up quickly.
Thousands of Bruins fans thought the season was about to end on May 13. They streamed out of TD Garden in the third period after the Toronto Maple Leafs went ahead 4-1 in Game 7 and wound up missing the biggest elimination game comeback in NHL history.
A goal midway through the third period brought Boston closer and it was followed by two more with Tuukka Rask on the bench for an extra attacker. Patrice Bergeron finished things off with the series-clincher in overtime.
It was the sort of thing that had to be seen to be believed.
“Watching the team as often as I have, you could feel the momentum after we scored the second goal,” Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelii recalled over the weekend. “I’ve never seen something like that happen, with two empty-net goals. But I could feel it coming and I could see the Toronto team see that it was coming, too.
“Whether it was going to happen or not, as the minutes progressed I thought: ‘This might happen.”‘
The Bruins haven’t looked back.
They reeled off eight victories in nine games while promptly dispatching the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins in the second and third rounds. The stretch was so dominant that Boston outscored its opponents by a combined 27-12.
“I think the fact that we (had the comeback against Toronto) certainly catapulted our level of play and performance,” said Chiarelli. “You could see the team pick itself up. Going back to when it happened, you could feel the momentum.”
It was a second-round scare against Detroit that got Chicago going.
Not only did the Blackhawks erase a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in the franchise’s 87-year history, they also rallied from behind in the third period of Game 6 at Joe Louis Arena to do it.
Then in Game 7, Chicago had the potential series-winning goal negated by a penalty call with less than two minutes to play in regulation but managed to stay composed enough to advance with a Brent Seabrook overtime goal.
Those experiences have made the Presidents’ Trophy winners even stronger.
It took just five games to eliminate Los Angeles in the Western Conference final — a series that ended with Saturday night’s double overtime victory after the Kings had tied the game with 10 seconds to play in regulation.
Undeterred, the Blackhawks refused to blink in the face of that latest piece of distress.
“We’ve been through so much so far in the playoffs,” said goalie Corey Crawford. “We’ve been able to play our game after something like that happens. That’s just another step for us.”
It seems fitting that the biggest step of all involves the two recent Stanley Cup champions trying to find a way to beat a fellow team that has refused to die.
Adversity is thought to be a necessary part of any championship run and both the Bruins and Blackhawks have lived it. They are already battle-tested.
Should times get tough again in the next week or two, Chicago will try to draw on the confidence it gained in beating Detroit, just as Boston will reflect back to the amazing comeback it pulled off against the Maple Leafs.
“That’s a testament to the team,” said Chiarelli. “There wasn’t really a switch (we flipped). We had some good games in that series, we had some not so good games, but I think it was more of a realization to these guys that, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this thing done.’
“They waited a little long, but certainly it was a boost to their play the rest of the way, without question.”
Despite being two of the NHL’s Original Six franchises, Boston and Chicago have never previously met in the Stanley Cup final. In fact, they haven’t even so much as played a game against one another in more than 600 days.
It nearly didn’t happen this year, either.