The Toronto Maple Leafs snagged home-ice advantage from the Boston Bruins with a 4-1 win in Game 1 of their first-round series on Thursday night, and superstar Brad Marchand believes his club wasn't prepared.
"I think maybe we thought it was going to be a little easier than it was out there," he told NHL.com's Amalie Benjamin. "We were trying to play too much of a controlled style, where that's not really our game. So we've got to play a little faster."
Marchand got the Bruins on the board with a primary assist on Patrice Bergeron's power-play tally in the first period, but the Leafs responded with four unanswered goals to win the opener.
"I don't think they took us off our game, I just don't think we played our game," Marchand said. "We weren't playing right the whole way through, we weren't taking care of pucks the way we normally do and the way we can. That's what they thrive on."
The Bruins owned a 29-9-3 record at home in the regular season, and only lost consecutive games in regulation at TD Garden once - their final two home games on the schedule.
Game 2 goes Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.
