Toronto Maple Leafs: Brian Boyle Is Cancer Free And Back In Town

Former Toronto Maple Leafs forward, Brian Boyle returns to Toronto tonight as his New Jersey Devils squad face-off against the Maple Leafs.

The 33-year-old centreman has had quite a career. He grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts. For those unfamiliar with the Greater Boston Area, Hingham is roughly a 30-minute drive south of Boston. The town of Hingham sits right next to Quincy and Hull. Plus, it’s a hotbed for athletes and coaches. In fact, Pierre McGuire, Tony Amonte, Mike “King” Kelly, Harold Hackett, Suzanne Parsons, Alice Merryweather and Marty McInnis all hail from Hingham.

Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots currently resides in Hingham.

Perhaps, growing up in a quite the sports-town rubbed off on him. Boyle attended St. Sebastian’s School in Needham, Massachusetts. The St. Sebastian School has done extremely well in grooming hockey players. They have many alumni that have made it to the NHL including Noah Hanifin of the Calgary Flames, Mike Grier and Rick DiPietro. After his days at St. Sebastian, he went onto play for one of the most prestigious college hockey programs at Boston College.

Boyle impressed many scouts during his time at Boston College and caught the eye of the Los Angeles Kings front office. The Kings ended up selecting him in the late first round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

To date, Boyle has played for a few franchises including the New Jersey Devils, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings.

In the 2016-17 season, he had a brief stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was traded to the Maple Leafs in late February of 2017 for Byron Froese and a conditional second round draft selection. While Boyle’s stay in Toronto was short, he was an asset for the club. He provided the team with depth up the middle and outstanding penalty-killer. He had appeared in 21 games with the Maple Leafs and posted 3 assists, 11:19 ATOI, 10 blocks, 32 hits, 10 take-aways and a 49.5 corsi-for percentage (CF%).

In addition, he appeared in 6 post-season games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. While the Maple Leafs fell to the Washington Capitals in six games, Boyle still helped the Maple Leafs down the stretch. He posted 2 assists, 12:27 ATOI, 2 blocks, 18 hits and 1 take-away.

After his stint with the Maple Leafs, he hit the free agent market and decided to move down to the Garden State as he signed a contract with the New Jersey Devils.

Unfortunately, that summer was a rough one for Boyle and his family. Prior to the 2017-18 season, Boyle was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Thankfully after much therapy, Boyle announced a few weeks ago that his cancer was now in remission. Per a report from Mike Morreale of NHL.com, recent blood tests had proven that there was no cancer left.

It’s great to see that Boyle is healthy once again. Not only is he in great shape, but he’s also been stellar this season. In fact, on Monday night, Boyle grabbed a hat-trick against the Pittsburgh Penguins. At this point, he has 6 goals, 1 assist, 4 power-play goals, 22.2 shooting percentage (S%) and a 45.4 CF%.

While Boyle isn’t likely to stay at his current pace, he is a strong asset for the Devils. He provides much needed veteran leadership in a very young locker room. The Devils have many young players including Miles Wood, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher, Mirco Mueller and Steven Santini. So having a veteran leader like Boyle in your locker room is great for these young developing athletes. They get to look up to someone who has achieved success at the NHL level and can prove to fight through anything.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Fortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Devils have had a really tough start to the season. While the Devils have many assets, they have struggled in the defensive zone. They have a very high GA/GP. At this very moment, they own a 3.31 GA/GP. In addition, no Devils defenseman owns a CF% percentage over 50%. The defenseman with the highest CF% is Andy Greene. Currently, Greene owns a 49.3 CF% and a 20:60 TOI/60.

Additionally, in the offensive zone, most of their success has been on the power-play. They currently own a 26.4 PP%. So, the key for the Toronto Maple Leafs is to stay out of the penalty box and avoid giving the Devils chances to capitalize up a man.

It seems that Mike Babcock will most likely roll with the same lines that he used against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vegas Golden Knights. Per the tweet from Kristen Shilton of TSN below, Babcock kept the same lines intact at yesterday’s mandatory practice.

Prediction & Notes

As long as the Toronto Maple Leafs can stay out of the box, they have a fighting chance to pick up their third win in a row. My prediction is that the Maple Leafs will beat the Devils by a score of 4-2.

Puck drop will be at around 7:05 pm EST and the game can be found on TSN4 in the Greater Toronto Area, MSG+ in New Jersey/New York, and a Quebecois broadcast can be found on TVAS.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com