Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins Series Preview

Tomorrow night, the Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts.

The Bruins finished the season with a record 50-20-12 under head coach, Bruce Cassidy. He took over at the tail end of last season for Claude Julien and helped bring the Bruins into the playoffs last season. Unfortunately for Bruins’ fans, their hopes for a long Stanley Cup run didn’t become a reality. Division rival, the Ottawa Senators made sure that the Bruins playoff run died in the first round.

Bruins & Maple Leafs Playoff History

On paper, this year’s Bruins team is much stronger than the one from last year. The Bruins are no joke and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Plus, they have a history of beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs.

The last time that these two divisional foes met in the playoffs, it didn’t end well for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Leaf Nation. The Bruins had a stellar comeback in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. In the third period of game 7, Nazem Kadri and Phil Kessel both scored to give the Maple Leafs a 4-1 lead.

As we all know, a three goal lead is the worst lead in hockey and the Maple Leafs proved that. Former Maple Leafs net-minder, James Reimer let up three goals in the tail end of the third. Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron turned Maple Leafs fans’ emotions upside down. At the end of the period, the Bruins had tied the game and forced an overtime. In overtime, Bergeron, a native of Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec shattered the Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup run by scoring a game winning goal for the Bruins.

Maple Leafs Have Improved Since 2013

All-in-all, the Toronto Maple Leafs team is much stronger than it was back in May of 2013. The Maple Leafs went through a much needed rebuild and added young talent including Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Frederik Andersen. The Maple Leafs should put up a much better fight in this upcoming series.

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.