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3 Reasons Why Montreal Could Upset the Toronto Maple Leafs

By Stephen Nixon

MONTREAL, QC - MAY 03: Goaltender Jake Allen #34 of the Montreal Canadiens stretches out the right pad to make a save on Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime at the Bell Centre on May 3, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - MAY 03: Goaltender Jake Allen #34 of the Montreal Canadiens stretches out the right pad to make a save on Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime at the Bell Centre on May 3, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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MONTREAL, QC – MAY 03: Goaltender Jake Allen #34 of the Montreal Canadiens stretches out the right pad to make a save on Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs  (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

No. 2: Special Teams

The Toronto Maple Leafs have two of the most gifted offensive players in the NHL. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are Toronto’s Batman and Robin and can do magic on the powerplay.

Well, they used to.

For whatever reason, the powerplay has ran cold for the past two months and they haven’t been able to get it going. Good news is that everything resets in the playoffs, but bad news is that special teams is one of the most important parts of a playoff series.

Besides a huge effort from your goaltender, the powerplay can make or break a series.

Toronto finished the year with a 20% powerplay, which was 16th in the NHL. That’s not terrible, but it should be their biggest strength. Over the past few seasons, they’ve consistently ranked in the top-eight, so they need to improve when the playoffs start.

The Canadiens powerplay is a little worse than Toronto’s, but all they have to do is win the special teams battle.

If Montreal’s big defensive pairing of Shea Weber and Jeff Petry can kill penalties, followed by Tyler Toffoli scoring on the powerplay, that could be the difference-maker in a seven game series. Match that with a solid performance by Carey Price and the Leafs could be in trouble.

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