Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins Series Preview

Boston Bruins Lines

Yesterday, the Boston Bruins Twitter Handle tweeted out the Bruins lines.

As you can see from the tweet, the Bruins top line is one of the best in the National Hockey League. The pairing of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak has been pivotal to the Bruins’ success this season. The three forwards combined have totaled 99 goals and 129 assists. The one thing to note is that the Bruins top line is great 5v5, but also excels on the power-play. On the power-play, the three have totaled 31 goals and 70 PPP.

Their second line isn’t as strong compared to the top line and honestly doesn’t provide the first line with solid depth. Cassidy has decided to go with Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci and Rick Nash on the second line. DeBrusk has looked solid in his first season in the NHL. In 70 games, he registered 16 goals and 27 assists. Unfortunately for DeBrusk, his centre, Krejci had his worst season. Krejci had 44 points in 64 games. In addition, Nash wasn’t so great either, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Aside from the top two lines, the forward I really like is Danton Heinen. Per the tweet from the Bruins, he plays on their third line. Heinen has truly blossomed into a solid winger. In 77 games this season, he had 16 goals and 31 assists. In his last five games, he’s been great for Boston and totaled 2 goals.

Bruins Defense

Aside from their offense, the Bruins’ defense and net-minding shouldn’t be overlooked. The Bruins have a solid top defensive pairing. Cassidy has Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara playing on his top defensive pairing. While McAvoy has spent a decent amount of time in the press box due to injury, he’s been nothing but spectacular for Boston. In 63 games this season, he registered 7 goals, 25 assists and a 54.8 CF%. On his left side, Chara, at age 40 hasn’t showed signs of slowing down. While he’s not the power-play hero that he used to be, he’s still outstanding defensively. This season, he had a 52.9 CF%. In all likelihood, Cassidy will have McAvoy and Chara spend the bulk of their ice-time facing the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top line of Zach Hyman, Matthews and Nylander.

While the Bruins have had to make a bunch of changes on their last two pairings due to the injury of Brandon Carlo, they still have some weapons on defense. On their second line, Torey Krug has been a valued asset in the offensive zone. This season he registered 14 goals and 45 assists. He also proven to be a strong quarterback on the power-play. Aside from Krug, I truly like Matt Grzelcyk. While Grzelcyk isn’t a house hold name and doesn’t appear often on the score sheet, he’s tied with McAvoy for the highest CF% by a defenseman on the Bruins. Grzelcyk has proven to be an asset all year and should continue to be successful in round one.

Tuukka Rask

In net, the Bruins are led by one of the best Finnish goaltenders to play professional hockey. Tuukka Rask has been nothing but phenomenal. From year to year, he consistently owns a low GAA and a stellar SV%. Unfortunately for Mike Babcock and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Rask seems to be ten times stronger in the playoffs. Rask owns a 2.12 GAA in 53 playoff games. If the Toronto Maple Leafs hope to beat the Bruins in the series, they’ll have to study Rask and find ways to beat him.

Toronto Maple Leafs Lines

Yesterday, TSN’s Kristen Shilton attended the Toronto Maple Leafs’ practice. Shilton tweeted out the lines from practice.

As you can see, Babcock is truly comfortable with his lines and isn’t looking at making many changes for the start of round one. Even though there aren’t any changes to his lines, there are two items that I’d like to note.

First, Babcock prefers Leo Komarov over Andreas Johnsson for game 1 against Boston. This makes a ton of sense. While Johnsson has shown to be a solid contributor in his first few games in the NHL, Komarov is the best defensive forward that Toronto has. In 74 games this season, Komarov registered 219 hits, 48 blocks and 47 take-aways. It would be a mistake to sit Komarov against one of the best teams in the NHL.

On the defensive side, Babcock prefers Roman Polak over Connor Carrick. I’ve debated whether Polak is a great or terrible fit for the Maple Leafs throughout the year. While I’m still not a huge fan of Polak, I do understand the need for physicality when playing a tough vigorous team like the Bruins.

Keys To Poking The Bear

At TD Garden and on social media, Bruins fans typically chant “Don’t Poke The Bear”.  If the Toronto Maple Leafs expect to poke the bear and move on to the next round. They have a couple of things to work on.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs take very few penalties compared to the rest of the NHL, they need to stay out of the box. The Bruins have the fourth best power-play in the league. This season, they owned a 23.5 PP%. If the Maple Leafs do find themselves a man down, they need to be physical and block shots especially when facing Krug, Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak.

Aside from staying out of the box, their power-play needs to continue to blossom. In the last few games of the season, it was evident that the Maple Leafs second power-play line was continuing to find its groove again. If both lines can excel, the Maple Leafs can do some serious damage.

Lastly, puck possession. In my post, Josh’s End of Season Thoughts, I brought up the need to work on puck possession. If the Maple Leafs are truly bound to make a strong playoff run, they need to limit the amount of opposition scoring chances. To do so, they need to play well in the neutral zone and steal the puck from the Bruins.

If the Maple Leafs can accomplish all three keys to success, they should be a shoe-in to move to round two.

Schedule

Tomorrow night at TD Garden, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins being round one. Below is the schedule for the series including time (in Eastern Standard Time), TV (Canadian and American broadcasts) and location.

12th of April – Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, Game One, 7:00 PM, NBC Sportsnet, CBC, NESN

14th of April – Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, Game Two, 8:00 PM, NBC, CBC

16th of April – Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, Game Three, 7:00 PM, NBC Sportsnet, CBC, NESN

19th of April – Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, Game Four, 7:00 PM, NBC Sportsnet, CBC, NESN

21st of April – Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, Game Five (If Necessary), TBD

23rd of April – Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, Game Six (If Necessary), TBD

25th of April – Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, Game Seven (If Necessary), TBD

Next: Can Leafs Sweep the Bruins?

Prediction

If the Toronto Maple Leafs can shut down the Bruins’ top line and their power-play, Babcock and the Leafs should prevail in round one.

My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will defeat the Bruins in 6 games.

This will be a riveting series! Editor In Leaf will be coming out with a preview for Game One tomorrow. Stay tuned!

stats from NHL.com, foxsports.com and hockey-reference.com