During the NHL’s European media tour, Bruins forward David Pastrnak made a peculiar comment about the Toronto Maple Leafs and one writer has taken exception.

Pastrnak and the Bruins drew the Maple Leafs in Round 1 of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but much of Leafs Nation was optimistic that it could finally be the year, despite the fact that the Bruins finished 7 points up in the standings.

Pastrnak’s comments during the media tour related to how the Bruins viewed themselves as underdogs against the Maple Leafs, but one Toronto-based writer poured cold water over that theory with a poignant statement about the reality of the situation.

It’s worth mentioning that, even without Auston Matthews and William Nylander at points in the series, the Leafs surged back from a 3-1 deficit to force a final and deciding Game 7 — which they were leading, before a 3rd period goal ended up forcing overtime, where Pastrnak put the Leafs on ice.

The real difference-maker for the Leafs in the series was Joseph Woll, as former Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark mentioned this summer. The young Leafs netminder came in and essentially stole two games prior to suffering an unfortunate injury in the dying seconds of Game 6, which forced Ilya Samsonov back into the net for Game 7.

To Sammy’s credit, he actually played well in the contest, though the OT goal is probably one that shouldn’t have gone in, if we’re being entirely honest with ourselves.

At any rare, while Pastrnak believes the his team was the underdog in the series, obviously not everyone agrees.