Toronto Maple Leafs: Still Alive for Game Six
By Josh Tessler
Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to the Air Canada Centre to take on the Boston Bruins in game six.
The Toronto Maple Leafs line changes worked out like a charm in game five. After 10 minutes into the first period, Mike Babcock looked like the Bill Gates of hockey. Connor Brown found the back of the net for the first time in the playoffs and Andreas Johnsson capitalized to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs didn’t look as strong in the second and third periods and gave the Bruins plenty of chances to grab the lead.
At the end of the night, the Toronto Maple Leafs won, but were out-shot by the Bruins 45 to 21. To be honest, if it weren’t for Frederik Andersen, the Bruins would have been popping champagne bottles in the North End of Boston. If the Maple Leafs expect to force a game 7, they can’t let the Bruins fire shot after shot on Andersen. He is a brick wall, but if he has to face 45 shots again tonight it might not be as pretty.
Toronto Maple Leafs Updates
Mike Babcock hasn’t made too many changes to his line prior to game six. The only big change Babcock has made is putting Nazem Kadri back with Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau, per a tweet from TSN’s Mark Masters. Originally, he had Kadri skate with Marner and Marleau in the morning skate prior to game five. Prior to puck drop, he decided to have Tomas Plekanec play with them instead. It worked out well, but Kadri does have excellent chemistry with Marner and Marleau so it does make sense having the gang back together.
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On the other hand, Plekanec will centre the third line and play alongside Johnsson and William Nylander. Plekanec has a had solid series offensively and defensively.
Boston Bruins Updates
On the other side of the ice, the Bruins didn’t have practice yesterday and had an optional skate at the Air Canada Centre today.
Per a tweet from Fluto Shinzawa at The Athletic, Rick Nash was the only regular forward that was on the ice yesterday at the Warrior Arena in Brighton, Massachusetts. The Toronto Maple Leafs have kept Nash at bay throughout the series. Perhaps, Nash wanted to get an additional skate in prior to game six to re-group. This series, Nash has registered 1 goal on the power-play and 2 PIM.
In net, expect that Tuukka Rask will be manning the pipes for the Bruins. He was pulled in game five and swapped for Anton Khudobin, but Rask is a warrior in the playoffs. In 58 playoff games, Rask owns a 2.18 GAA, .927 SV% and 5 shutouts.
Next: Game Five Was Incredible
Prediction & Notes
If the Leafs can out-shoot the Bruins, they’ll likely be able to force a game 7 back in Boston. My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will win by a score of 6-5.
Puck drop will be at approximately 7:05 pm EST. The game can be found on CBC in Canada and NBCSN in the United States.
stats from NHL.com