Bruins, Maple Leafs Try To Describe Incredible Game 7 In Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins' three-goal third-period comeback defies any and all explanation, but the Bruins and Maple Leafs did their best to try to describe what they experienced. Here are some select quotes from after the Bruins' 5-4 overtime win in Game 7.
Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton
"To be honest, I kind of thought we were done."
"I think I'm in shock a little bit. I think when you're down 4-1 you start thinking about the season being over and the emotions from that, and just all the excitement now. It's a pretty cool feeling. I just skated around after the game with the fans, and I don't think they sat during overtime. So I'm just pretty happy."
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Bruins-Leafs Game 7 Montage
Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuck
"That was unbelievable. That's one thing you're going to remember probably for the rest of your life, because it was such a comeback that everybody probably thought that we were done and showed what kind of character there is in this dressing room. Never say die, more or less."
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Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron
"I have high expectations of myself. I'm probably my hardest critic. Whatever pressure is outside of me, I don't really worry about it because I know I bring higher expectations than anyone else. It's about finding a way and showing some character, and I thought we did that tonight. Everyone has to step up in the playoffs and tonight was my turn to do it for my team."
"That second goal really lifted the bench and the guys. Two goals and we knew we could do it at that point with the time we had left. I thought the guys showed a lot of character coming back in it. We definitely made it interesting for us and for the fans, also. We'd like to do it a better way, but at the same time, like I said, it builds character and confidence at the same time."
"I know two minutes is not much for two goals, but we really felt like we had enough time to do it. We did that in Toronto as well, getting that goal. We moved the puck real well. We opened up a lot of plays by staying poised with the puck and knowing where guys were going to be around us. It was a great play by all of us there. One was at their spot where they needed to be. It was a great play by Looch to get that rebound and then great screen by Z for the fourth one.
Bruins forward Milan Lucic
"Pretty crazy. I don't think I've ever been part of a game that was anything like that. ... When you're looking at the clock wind down with half a period left at 4-1 you start thinking to yourself, 'Is this the end of this group here?' Because it probably would have been if we didn't win this game, but you've got to have bounces. You've got to have luck. You've got to have everything go your way and that's what happened there in the last 10 minutes of the third period."
"The mind-set [in the game's final minutes] was different. In the season when you're out on a 6-on-5, sometimes you start thinking, 'I don't want to be on for that empty-net goal,' where this time it was, 'We're going to score. We're going to retrieve the puck. We're going to score.' Them getting an empty-net goal I don't think was in any of our minds; at least it wasn't on my mind. So the mind-set was definitely different in the last two minutes there when we had the goalie pulled compared to what it's been like for us in the past with a 6-on-5."
Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf
"It's extremely tough to put into words. We had a team down and out, and we just let them take over the game and climb out of a hole that they never should have came back from."
"This one is probably the toughest losses I've ever had in pro hockey."
Maple leafs goaltender James Reimer
"There's no way to describe it I don't think. Just an empty feeling really. It's over and there's nothing you can do about it. You know, when you go through the season and a goal goes in or somebody scores in the shootout or whatever deciding goal that it is you know – it sucks but you'll get them next time. But a case like tonight there is no next time, it's just next year. So you know, it's really just an empty feeling."
Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel
"It's pretty tough. Obviously we were up 4-1 with ten minutes left or something. You can't blow a lead like that. ... I don't know what happened to us. 4-1, you can't lose that game."
Bruins head coach Claude Julien
"Drained, obviously is probably the key word. The emotions of this game had us going in all kinds of directions. I told the guys after the game that they didn't let me down with the Jekyll-and-Hyde comment because in one game they were able to show that."
'There was a time halfway through the second there was a lot of frustration on the bench. At the 10-minute timeout, we kind of regrouped our guys and talked to them about having to switch our frustration to more of a determination and a focus. There was a lot of emotion throughout the whole night and there was a lot of emotion from last night to tonight, a lot of things happening. I give my players a lot of credit for handling what happened last night, from the loss to after the game, to getting here today and being able to handle that and push those distractions aside enough to find a way to win a real important hockey game."
"I think the guys were pretty focused on determined to finish it off [after regulation ended]. The only thing a coach says -- and I said that before -- is you can't pass up on shots. You have to shoot everything you can, and you have to play on your toes, not on your heels. You have to play to win, and if you do that, you're giving yourself a chance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it's not a very complicated thing as you've seen, and in overtime, any shot on net is a good shot. Our guys did a great job. Tyler, who has been criticized a lot this series, if you watched the winning goal did one heck of a job in front of that net before [Bergeron] puts it in."
"We've always had trouble with the killer-instinct. But that's maybe a fault of ours, but a strength of ours is the character you saw tonight. There's that fault, and then there's that character."
Bruins forward Brad Marchand
"It's huge. You look at Game 7 a couple of years ago against Montreal. Being down 2-0 and coming back, winning Game 7 in overtime. It really gives your team a lot of confidence. It gives them the opportunity to know that we can carry this thing a long way."
