Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Boston Bruins in game four at the Air Canada Centre.
After a frustrating start to the series in Boston, the Toronto Maple Leafs were down 2-0 in the series before heading back to the Great White North.
Game Three
In game three, the Toronto Maple Leafs took advantage of playing at home and scooped up a 4-2 win. Patrick Marleau, Mitch Marner, James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews and Tomas Plekanec proved their worth . Marleau was outstanding and netted two goals. Van Riemsdyk continued his success on the power-play. Matthews had a beautiful wrist shot that went past Tuukka Rask. Rielly was a true play-maker and Plekanec helped shut down Patrice Bergeron.
For me, the MVP was Plekanec. The fact that he was able to shut down the Bruins’ top line of David Pastrnak, Bergeron and Brad Marchand is outstanding. Leafs Nation and myself was worried how he would do in the second line, but he out-performed expectations.
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With the lack of success that the Maple Leafs have had in Boston this series, it’s safe to say that game four is a must win as they are playing on home ice. Hopefully, the Maple Leafs can carry the momentum from game three into game four and dominate at both ends of the ice.
If they end up losing game four, they’ll face elimination in Boston which likely won’t be pretty.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without Leo Komarov. He’s suffering from a possible knee injury after being checked by Kevan Miller in game two at TD Garden.
As mentioned in my post yesterday, Mike Babcock told the media after yesterday’s practice that Komarov would be absent from the lineup. In his place, the Maple Leafs will likely opt to utilize Dominic Moore, Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen. I truly like this line since it offers the Maple Leafs a ton of speed.
I’d expect that Babcock will keep the other lines intact since they proved to be rather successful in game three.
Boston Bruins
On the other side of the ice, the Bruins will likely have defenseman, Matt Grzelcyk, native of Charlestown, Masscahusetts back in the lineup. Fluto Shinzawa of The Atheltic Boston spoke with the head coach of the Bruins, Bruce Cassidy yesterday in Toronto. Cassidy shared that he was optimistic that Grzelcyk will return to the lineup for game four.
Prax lineup:
— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) April 18, 2018
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Rick Nash
Heinen-Riley Nash-Backes
Schaller-Kuraly-Acciari
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Miller
Grzelcyk-McQuaid
Rask
Yesterday, Shinzawa tweeted out the Bruins’ practice lines and Grzelcyk was playing alongside Adam McQuaid.
If Grzelcyk is back in the lineup for Boston, that’s not good news for Leafs Nation. He’s been outstanding defensively and registered a 54.8 CF% this season. In addition, his line-mate isn’t too bad himself. This season, McQuaid owned a 51.2 CF%. Plus, both defenseman aren’t shy about using their bodies to block the puck from going towards Rask.
On the off-chance that Grzelcyk won’t be in the lineup, Cassidy will likely go with Nick Holden on his third line pairing.
Prediction & Notes
I believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs will carry their momentum from game three into game four. The Maple Leafs were excellent on both sides of the ice and if they can replicate their performance then they should be able to grab a win. My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will beat the Bruins by a score of 4-3.
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Puck drop will be at approximately 7:05 pm EST. Additionally, the game can be found on CBC in Canada and NBCSN in the United States.
stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com