Bruins
“The guy’s got three Cups for a reason.”
Pat Maroon’s impact on the Bruins’ bench is easy to glean.
There’s the sight of the veteran winger — his name thrice etched into the Stanley Cup — keeping his linemates grounded amid the chaos of playoff hockey with pats on the back and words of encouragement.
And, of course, there’s the optics of the 6-foot-3, 234-pound bruiser dumping Toronto defenseman Timothy Liljegren into Boston’s bench on Saturday night — jolting an already rabid TD Garden crowd.
That postseason mettle and pugnacious approach on the ice are two valued commodities when the calendar turns to April.
And in his first playoff appearance in a black-and-gold sweater, Maroon showcased just why Boston wanted to bring him aboard for their latest Cup run.
“It’s a lot of emotion that comes our way, especially because the crowd gets into it,” Jim Montgomery said of the tone that Maroon sets on the ice. “The play he makes, I mean, that’s what he’s good at — is making subtle plays that build the team game.
“And what he’s really good at is on the bench, and what we’ve noticed is, a lot like Nick Foligno, a lot of positive talk, a lot of reinforcement of what the game plan is.”
Based on Maroon’s approach against the Maple Leafs in Game 1, the Bruins’ strategy on Saturday was to land as many welts as possible against their Original Six foe. On a night where Boston doled out 51 total hits against Toronto, Maroon led the way with six hits in his 11:28 of ice time.
Maroon’s knack for dropping opposing skaters by way of a bone-crunching check or right hook has been well-documented. But the Bruins did not just add Maroon to their roster to serve as just a physical deterrent.
“When he’s on the ice, his ability to hang onto pucks, his ability to make plays, I think it’s incredibly underrated,” Montgomery said of Maroon’s game before this first-round series commenced. “A lot of people talk about Maroon and his fisticuffs, for lack of a better word. To me, he’s a hockey player. He’s won three Cups because he’s a hockey player.”
Maroon made an immediate impact on his first shift during Saturday’s game. While corralling a puck near the boards, Maroon found himself in the crosshairs of Leafs scrapper Ryan Reaves and 6-foot-5 blueliner Joel Edmundson.
Most NHLers likely would have dished the puck into no-man’s land to avoid the heat — or cough up the biscuit after getting walloped against the glass. Of course, Maroon isn’t built like most NHLers.
With two skaters drawn to him, Maroon instead flipped the puck over to linemate Jesper Boqvist — who took off down the other end of the ice. With Reaves and Edmundson both trying to topple over Maroon, the Leafs only had one skater back as Boqvist and Johnny Beecher pushed the puck toward Ilya Samsonov.
Seconds later, Beecher fired home Boqvist’s feed — giving Boston a lead just 2:26 into the game off of the team’s first shot of the evening.
“The guy’s got three Cups for a reason,” Beecher said of Maroon. “He knows how to play the right way. He knows how to manage a game. He’s been great for me and Boqs, just slowing the game down and giving us a little advice here and there. He made an unbelievable play. The goal doesn’t happen without him.”
Maroon may not be a top-six fixture at this stage of his career. But it’s no coincidence that the 35-year-old won three straight Cups from 2019-21.
The Bruins are hoping that he adds a fourth ring in his latest stop of his NHL career.
“He made a great play on that first goal tonight,” Marchand said of Maroon. “So he understands the importance of the little plays in the game that can make a difference in the outcome and he harps on that and he keeps guys accountable.
“It’s not an easy thing to do for a guy to come in at a deadline and act like that and have that confidence in a room, but because of his experience, he does. It makes a big difference.”
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