Cheevers expecting 'long, drag-'em out series' between Panthers, Bruins

All the anticipation, the excitement and so perfectly it went right down to the wire, a tremendous competition decided by the narrowest margin.

So did the hockey game.

"That was terrific, I had the 2 horse," Boston Bruins legend Gerry Cheevers said Sunday from his home in Florida.

Of course, it was the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby to which Cheevers was referring, not the thrilling Game 7 overtime a few hours later Saturday that pushed the Bruins past the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 and into the Eastern Conference Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers. Game 1 is at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Cheevers wasn't awake at 11:20 p.m. ET for David Pastrnak's series-clinching goal, scored 1:54 into sudden death. He'd turned in while the game was still 0-0, learning the result when he went online Sunday morning.

"It started late, after 8 o'clock, but it's always nice to win Game 7 in overtime," Cheevers said.

A lifelong horseman, the legendary Bruins goalie was tuned Saturday afternoon to the Kentucky Derby to see his choice, Sierra Leone, finish second to Mystik Dan in a three-horse photo finish with Forever Young in third.

No, he said, he didn't have a $2 wager on his preferred colt.

"Much deeper than that," Cheevers joked. "A great race, a great finish. The difference was the winner almost never left the rail. The jockey's got scuff marks on his left boot."

Gerry Cheevers as a rookie with the 1961-62 Toronto Maple Leafs, and later with the Boston Bruins, for whom he won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972.

The 1985 Hockey Hall of Famer continues to be impressed by Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who compiled a brilliant 1.49 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in the first round. Boston will now count heavily on his continued excellence in the second round.

"It's been a unique season, this being the Bruins' Centennial year," Cheevers said. "Ex-Bruins like me and Bobby [Orr] and Phil [Esposito], we've been up to Boston a couple of times. I did a podcast with Jeremy a couple of years ago and had a chance to sit down with him during some of the events this season.

"He's a sharp, alert kid, full of energy. His demeanor is great, as is his relationship with (fellow goalie Linus) Ullmark, which I really like. He's a terrific goaltender. He doesn't give you anything. He's aware of how the opponent shoots and I think right now, stats-wise, he's the top goalie in the playoffs. I've been really impressed by him.

"I love watching Jeremy play. I remember talking to (former Bruins coach, general manager and president) Harry Sinden a few years ago and Harry loved him. He told me to take a look at him. I saw the kid has some stand up in him, which is very rare in today's game."

Cheevers, 83, is considered one of the best money goalies in NHL history, at his best when games counted the most. He helped the Bruins to Stanley Cup titles in 1970 and 1972 and played a Game 7 just once. That was in a 1971 NHL quarterfinal series, when Boston was upset 4-2 by the championship-bound Montreal Canadiens.

Defenseman Bobby Orr skates behind goalie Gerry Cheevers during a game Jan. 10, 1970, at Maple Leaf Gardens against Toronto.

The Bruins outshot the Canadiens 48-34 but ran into a goalie named Ken Dryden, who would win the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy voted as most valuable player of the postseason even before he'd won the 1972 Calder Trophy as the League's top rookie.

The day after elimination, Cheevers was at Suffolk Downs in East Boston to watch Falls Church, his new horse, win the ninth race.

"If I heard it once, I must have heard it a hundred times: 'Hey Cheevers, what happened?'" he wrote in his 1973 book "Goaltender," a diary of the 1970-71 season. "I'll be hearing it all summer. A couple of creeps shouted, 'Hey, ya bum, you should be playing hockey, not the horses.'"

Cheevers listened on Sunday about the set play that lifted the Bruins past the Maple Leafs, a shoot-in to the corner from center ice by defenseman Hampus Lindholm, Pastrnak flying in behind Toronto's defense to take the carom off the boards and deke Ilya Samsonov for the clincher.

"I think our guys may have practiced plays like that in the old Boston Garden, but that was 50 years ago," Cheevers said. "You couldn't trust the puck, especially up along the glass. When they shot it in like that, I'd never guess where it was going, I'd wait for it to see where it went. Sometimes the boards, too. You had to be careful. I didn't anticipate, I waited to see where it was. The glass had little wrinkles in it, and you couldn't trust the bottom of the boards."

Cheevers knew of the Bruins' failure last season to close out the first round against the Panthers when leading 3-1, then flirting with a similar fate against the Maple Leafs. But he scoffed at any notion of the hockey gods being on Boston's side Saturday, his former team now having defeated Toronto in four consecutive Game 7s.

"Boston's going on and Toronto isn't. The question shouldn't be about what if Boston had lost, but rather, 'So what now about Toronto?'" he said.

Goalie Gerry Cheevers in action with the Boston Bruins against the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum on Dec. 28, 1966. He's joined by Ed Westfall (18), Claude Larose (11) and Ted Green.

"Boston has a good organization and a good coach (Jim Montgomery), but when you get to the seventh game, I don't care what the media or coach say, you've got to go out and play the game to your strengths.

"You have to rely on who you are, why you're there. There's no 'Win one for the Gipper.' You just go out there and try to win the game. The Bruins, in large part because of Jeremy's goaltending, had a chance to execute that set play to end it."

Cheevers figures the series against Florida won't be over quickly.

"You have opposite ends of spectrum going into the first game," he said. "The Panthers have been out of action for a week (as of Monday following their five-game first-round elimination of the Tampa Bay Lightning) and the Bruins, who have been in the fire and will have had just one day off.

"So who do you favor? The Bruins have to feel good, and Florida has to be restless. People probably think it's going to be an easy series for Florida but they're wrong. This will be a long, drag-'em out series, believe me.

"I'm thrilled that it's Boston, not Toronto, against Florida. I'm an old Bruin, I want to see them do well. I'm just an alumnus who’s cheering for them, I have no reason to cheer for Florida. This is going to be a heck of a series. Boston may keep going, who knows?"

Gerry Cheevers as he appears in a 2020 NHL Network original documentary "Big, Bad and Bobby," on the 50th anniversary of the Boston Bruins' 1970 Stanley Cup championship.

Cheevers will watch all of it from his living room, even if he lives about 40 minutes from Sunrise. He says he might get to one Panthers game a year.

"I'm at the stage of my life that I play golf, go home, have dinner and watch the game in my recliner," he said with a laugh.

And if this series is to go deep, Cheevers expressed mild concern about a schedule conflict.

"I'll be watching hockey as long as it doesn't interfere with the Preakness Stakes," he said.

On that score, Cheevers is safe. The second of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown runs May 18, between Games 6 and 7 -- if necessary -- between the Bruins and Panthers.

Top photo: Gerry Cheevers during a pause in the action during a 1970s game for the Boston Bruins.