TORONTO - Around the halfway point of Game 6 on Easter Sunday, Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy looked up at the scoreboard hanging over the red line at Scotiabank Arena.

A giant eight - denoting the Maple Leafs' shot count - stared back.

The single digit confirmed to Cassidy what his eyes were leading him to believe: The Bruins were in complete control and it would be the series-leading Leafs - not the team facing elimination - needing to rediscover their offense in a hurry.

“When they get their shot attempts, their shots on net, they’re really humming,” Cassidy said of the Leafs, relaying his mid-game thought process. “So I thought, ‘Listen, we’re on our way now.’”

The Bruins, up 3-1 then, finished off the second period strong, withstanding a push from the Leafs in the third to earn a 4-2 victory. The teams have alternated wins through six games to send the first-round series back to Boston for a Tuesday night finale.

"Let's put on our surprise face. Game 7, TD Garden, Boston and Toronto," Cassidy quipped to wrap up his postgame press conference.

Then he rubbed his hands together and clapped. Cassidy is pumped, but Toronto - the city and the team - is decidedly not.

Despite opening the scoring on Sunday, the Leafs again whiffed on their attempt to advance to the second round. The last time the Original Six franchise won a series, back in 2004, Pat Quinn was behind the bench. Up next for the current coach: Slaying those ugly Game 7 demons.

“We started really well, we played really well and then, boom,” Mike Babcock said. “Once they scored, we didn't recover very good. We talked about it and prepared for it, but it didn't happen.”

A sleepy stretch against a talented Bruins team that doesn't back down from a challenge wasted exceptional showings from goalie Frederik Andersen (37 saves) and blue-liner Morgan Rielly (one goal, six shots).

For the Bruins, five players - Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo on the back end, Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand up front, and Tuukka Rask between the pipes - registered notable performances, and the team limited Toronto’s potent attack.

In Game 6, the Leafs generated just 54 shot attempts, 24 shots on goal, and 26 scoring chances. In the five games prior, they averaged 62 attempts, 33 shots, and 32 chances per game, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. Keep in mind, those early-series numbers were deflated by a low-event Game 5.

The Leafs couldn’t find much space to operate for large chunks of a crucial game.

“I think today we did a really good job containing those stretch passes that were getting behind us (earlier in the series),” said Carlo, who skated for nearly 24 minutes. "The D had good gaps, forwards were great on the forecheck, and we didn’t really allow them to get behind us too much."

"When you don’t let them get into the offensive zone too much it silences the crowd and the team," he added.

On the other side of the puck, the Bruins’ power play continued to soar. Ranked third in the regular season, the unit hasn’t missed a beat through six playoff games, scoring at least once in every contest but Game 5. Overall, Boston has capitalized on seven of 16 power-play opportunities in the series.

On Sunday, as Toronto adjusted its penalty kill to collapse in front of Andersen, Marchand scored off a Patrice Bergeron faceoff win to make it 1-1. Six minutes later, Krug pounced on a blocked shot and buried a wrister.

“He really stepped up tonight, shot the puck a little more,” Cassidy said of Krug, who recorded a game-high nine shots. “We talked about getting some more traffic, some more action at the net, and I thought we did a good job with that. He sort of set the precedent.”

A precedent is there for Game 7, too, after the Leafs lost the deciding game of Round 1 last year in Boston. So, who has the mental edge after Game 6?

“I don’t know," Krug said. "I mean, it’s Game 7, anything can happen. That’s a question you’ll have to ask over there, in their locker room.”

Over to you, Leafs.

John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn or shoot him a note at john.matisz@thescore.com.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs will settle their series Tuesday night at TD Garden in Game 7, but some Bruins players aren't as thrilled about heading home as one might expect.

"They've played really well in our building so far this series and the ice has been terrible there so we might as well play with a tennis ball, skate around and see who can bounce one in the net," Brad Marchand told NHL.com's Dave McCarthy after Boston's Game 6 win in Toronto on Sunday.

Home ice hasn't been an advantage in this series, as each team has won two of its three games on the road.

Marchand's rant about ice quality didn't end there. After Sunday's game, he said the ice was much better in Toronto.

"Can we do that in Boston?" he asked, according to the Toronto Star's Bruce Arthur.

Marchand wasn't the only Bruin voicing his displeasure with TD Garden's ice.

"Sometimes the ice is good or bad," Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy told the Boston Herald's Marisa Ingemi. "It's not like you can get an unfortunate bounce and they blow it dead and say it wasn't fair."

Opposing players are noticing the poor ice quality in Boston, too. Maple Leafs forwards John Tavares and Kasperi Kapanen have both noted the issue throughout the series, and head coach Mike Babcock said "the ice was tough," after Game 5, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

TD Garden, which houses both the Bruins and the NBA's Boston Celtics, is the league's ninth-oldest building after opening in 1995.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Boston Bruins have pushed their opening-round series to seven games by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in Game 6 on Sunday.

More to come.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano, San Jose Sharks blue-liner Brent Burns, and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman are the finalists for the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman for 2019.

Giordano enjoyed the best year of his career in his age-35 season. He finished second among all defensemen with 74 points and led the league with a plus-39 rating.

Burns once again provided forward-like production from the blue line, leading all rearguards with 83 points. It's the highest point total from a defenseman since Brian Leetch's 85 points in 1995-96.

Hedman missed 12 games due to injury this season but still managed to collect 54 points. The 6-foot-6 Swede was an invaluable member of the Lightning during their historic regular season.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler had no time for a reporter who implied his team may not have been at its best after being eliminated from the playoffs by the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

Wheeler reeled it in after telling the reporter to "f--- off," adding that the Stanley Cup "is a tough trophy to win" and perhaps the Jets' best effort "just wasn't good enough."

Winnipeg bowed out of the postseason with a 3-2 loss in Game 6 in St. Louis, the first road loss by either team in the series. The club's exit in Round 1 comes a year after reaching the Western Conference Final in 2018.

Wheeler recorded five points during his short six-game stint in the 2019 playoffs.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie has been diagnosed with a broken collarbone after Carolina Hurricanes forward Warren Foegele hit him from behind on Thursday, sources told the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga.

Oshie will almost certainly miss the rest of the playoffs, Svrluga added.

The incident occurred with just over five minutes remaining in Game 4 when Foegele hit Oshie from behind, sending him tumbling into the boards at an awkward angle. Oshie didn't return to the game, and Foegele was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding. The rookie didn't receive further discipline.

Oshie was a key contributor throughout the Capitals' Stanley Cup run last spring, recording eight goals and 21 points in 24 contests. He notched one goal and one assist in four games against the Hurricanes this postseason before the injury.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Winnipeg Jets were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in six games after a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

Following the defeat, Jets head coach Paul Maurice was openly despondent about his team's season coming to an end.

"It's painful as hell because you think you're right there but you were beat by a team that thinks the same thing," Maurice said following the loss, according to the Winnipeg Sun's Scott Billeck.

The Jets and Blues battled through five tightly-contested games before St. Louis laid down the hammer. Although the scoreboard reflected a one-goal contest, the Blues were in complete control and held a shot advantage of 27-6 after two periods.

"I don't think tonight's game was indicative of the way the first five went ... such an incredibly tight series, shots are almost identical, chances the same, zone time the same. The margin for error was very slim," Maurice told reporters, according to FOX Sports Midwest.

Despite the Jets battling through several injuries this postseason, Maurice was quick to shoot down the notion that poor health played a role in the team's shortcomings.

"Careful with excuses - we got beat," Maurice said.

Winnipeg will face some important decisions this offseason, with key players such as Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Kevin Hayes, Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, and Ben Chariot all due for new contracts.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Mark Hunter received a second interview for the Edmonton Oilers' general manager vacancy, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Hunter, who's currently the GM of the OHL's London Knights, is one of multiple candidates the Oilers are still considering, Friedman added.

The 56-year-old is considered by many to be a draft guru. He joined the Toronto Maple Leafs' front office in October 2014 as their director of player personnel. Hunter became the club's co-interim GM - along with Kyle Dubas - in April 2015 after the firing of Dave Nonis, remaining in the position until Lou Lamoriello was hired in July 2015. He then served as an assistant general manager with the Leafs until Dubas was named the team's GM in April 2018.

Four of Hunter's draft picks during his tenure in Toronto have made the NHL: Mitch Marner (No. 4, 2015), Travis Dermott (No. 34, 2015), Auston Matthews (No. 1, 2016), and Carl Grundstrom (No. 57, 2016).

The Oilers fired GM Peter Chiarelli in January. Keith Gretzky has since filled the position in an interim role.

Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.