Why former Rangers center Brian Boyle thinks ‘maybe Game 7 on the road isn't so bad'
For someone who won some pretty massive Game 7s on home ice at Madison Square Garden with the New York Rangers, perhaps it's a bit surprising to hear that Brian Boyle thinks that being the road team with the right mind set is the way to go in a seventh and deciding contest in a Stanley Cup Playoff series.
History and statistics tell you he isn't technically right. Road teams have won 83 of 201 all-time Game 7s in NHL history (41.3 percent). But Boyle's opinion on this wasn't swayed just because the Florida Panthers went into Toronto and whacked the Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night to advance to the Eastern Conference Final. Remember, those same Panthers won Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last spring on home ice against the Edmonton Oilers.
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In 2015, when Boyle was with the Tampa Bay Lightning and playing against the Rangers in the conference final, his take on Game 7s solidified. Tampa took Game 5 at MSG with a 2-0 win and had the chance to wrap up the series at home but were blown out 7-3 by the Presidents' Trophy winners in Game 6.
'We get back on home ice and try to put on a show and it was just a gauntlet, [Derick] Brassard had like nine points in the game (he had five; three goals, two assists). It's like, what are we doing here?,' Boyle said on the Morning Cuppa Hockey podcast Monday. 'Everybody in New York was feeling great about themselves. That's sort of where I started realizing maybe Game 7 on the road isn't so bad.'
That decisive Game 7 at MSG was dictated by the Lightning and their complete buy-in to coach Jon Cooper's ethos to 'How can we play a game where we only give them one goal?'
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It was all about defense, selling out, giving up your body. Boyle thought it was easier accomplished on the road than at home.
'We were surgical. I don't think we had a ton of shots, but we scored a fluky goal by [Alex] Killorn … a really lucky goal … and then the second goal from [Ondrej] Palat and it was like we're done. Lock it down,' Boyle explained. 'It was no-one's getting one by us.'
Forget about allowing one goal. The Lightning won 2-0 and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. The Rangers, who'd never lost a Game 7 on home ice, were done for the season.
'I remember J.T. Miller had a one-timer off my knee and I still have like a bone spur on top of my kneecap blocking it,' Boyle recalled. 'Because I went down in a way I've never gone down before. but it was just that this puck is not getting by me. And everyone on the team did stuff like that.
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'The goal is to go in there and make that building quiet. And we did it.'
Related: Resurrecting Mika Zibanejad's game is major Mike Sullivan challenge with Rangers
Former Rangers center Brian Boyle learned the recipe for Game 7 success on the road
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The year before, in 2014, Boyle helped the Rangers rally from 3-1 down against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. That seventh game was played in Pittsburgh, Boyle scored the game's first goal, and the Rangers found a way to eek out a 2-1 victory
As Cooper told the Lightning a year later, just 'give them one goal.'
But as noted above, home teams do have the advantage in Game 7s. But Boyle's point is that the pressure can really shift to the home team in these situations and with the right mindset and buy-in, the visiting team can take full advantage.
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The Rangers did that to the Penguins — Henrik's Lundqvist's outrageous heroics certainly didn't hurt — and the Lightning did it to the Rangers the following year.
Sunday in Toronto, pressure mounted significantly on the Maple Leafs when they had seven high-danger scoring chances, including a pair of partial breakaways, in the first period and failed to convert in a scoreless first 20 minutes.
The Panthers shut it down the rest of the way, allowing only one high-danger chance against the rest of the night, per Natural Stat Trick. The damn burst for Florida with three goals in a span of 6:24 in the second period, and that was, in essence, that.
They knew what it takes in a big spot on the road. So does Brian Boyle.
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