Tkachuk: 'We all knew' Bruins would beat Leafs in Round 1

It's safe to say Matthew Tkachuk didn't BeLeaf.

The Florida Panthers forward wasn't surprised that the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 1 and admitted that his team were anticipating the outcome.

"Without this coming out too badly, I think we all knew it was probably going to be Boston the way that series was going," Tkachuk told reporters Sunday. "I'm sure a lot of people expected that at the beginning of the series.

"Playoffs, I guess you never know. But I think throughout the whole series we were probably expecting they were going to come out and win it one way or the other."

The Maple Leafs fought back from a 3-1 series deficit to force a Game 7 before the Bruins prevailed via David Pastrnak's overtime winner on Saturday.

Toronto has now been eliminated in Round 1 of the postseason in seven of the last eight years. The lone exception was in 2023 when the Leafs advanced to Round 2 before falling to the Panthers in five games.

Tkachuk's Panthers will now play the Bruins in Round 2 - a rematch after the underdog Cats clawed back from a 3-1 hole to beat a historically great Boston team in Round 1 a year ago.

However, the Bruins got the better of the Panthers during the 2023-24 regular season, winning all four meetings. That doesn't overly concern Tkachuk, though.

"They definitely got us in the regular season," he said. "I think if you ask them they're probably using that for confidence going into this series. We're like 'regular season doesn't matter, we got them in playoffs.'"

Game 1 goes down Monday at 8 p.m. ET.