BOSTON — And so they meet again. The Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs don’t hold their spring clash quite as a frequently as the B’s and Montreal Canadiens once did, but the Blue-and-White have replaced the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge as the B’s chief rival.

This will be the fourth time in 11 years the two Original Six teams will meet in the first round of the playoffs. And so far, to the delight of B’s fans, their team has played the role of the pre-1988 Habs to the Leafs, who’ve been playing the Charlie Brown Bruins of yesteryear.

But as much as the B’s fandom believes they own the Leafs, it’s never been easy. Three series, three Game 7 wins for the Bruins. And if you’re a Leafs fan, you can say the hockey gods have been very kind to the B’s. In the 2013 colossal collapse, the refs swallowed their whistles to allow the B’s to manhandle Toronto in their three-goal comeback. In 2018 and 2019, valuable centerman Nazem Kadri got himself suspended. Had he kept his cool, the trajectory of recent Leaf history might have been very different.

Nobody knows what strange things will occur over the next two weeks. But if it’s anything like the three previous series, this one should be a lot of fun. This is how the lines and pairs looked in Friday’s practices for both teams:

Forwards

Bruins

Danton Heinen-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak

Brad Marchand-Charlie Coyle-Jake DeBrusk

Jakub Lauko-Morgan Geekie-Trent Frederic

John Beecher-Jesper Boqvist-Pat Maroon

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