5 Things That Went Wrong for the Toronto Maple Leafs During the Playoffs
So what led to the Maple Leafs demise against the Boston Bruins once again?
After a spirited comeback in the best-of-seven series against the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs fell just short once again in advancing past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But unlike their previous playoff encounters in the past when the Bruins appeared to own the Toronto Maple Leafs in all aspects of the game, this time both teams seemed to be quite evenly matched as the series progressed.
The pesky Bruins were no longer pushing the feeble Leafs around, as the Leafs matched them hit for hit and shot for shot. At times, it even felt like the Leafs were even controlling play over Boston as well.
Then why did the outcome not go the Maple Leafs way in the end? Did they somehow do something wrong that led to their playoff failure once again?
5 Things That Went Wrong for the Toronto Maple Leafs During the Playoffs Against the Boston Bruins
Here, we will take a look at five things that went wrong for Toronto that ultimately led to their undeserving downfall this time around.
Woeful Power Play
One of the main strengths of the Maple Leafs became one of their main weaknesses in the playoffs once again, just like in recent years.
After finishing seventh in the league with a 24% success rate with the man advantage, the Leafs power play hit the dumps against Bruins as they went a dismal 1-for-21 in the series. Only the Los Angeles Kings managed to any worse, failing to score at all 5-on-4 in their entire series against the Edmonton Oilers.
With the potent firepower found within the Maple Leafs lineup, it is actually quite perplexing to see them struggle every year once the playoffs rolled around.
However, it is a huge redundant problem that needs to be fixed going forward if they want to have any future success in their Stanley Cup runs. With games often close at this time of year, special teams’ goals almost always is the difference maker for a potential contending team.
Underwhelming Penalty Kill
Similar to their power play, the Leafs penalty kill once again was underwhelming to say the least against Boston.
The Bruins went 6-for-17 with the man advantage, thus outscoring the Leafs 6-1 in that category, as Toronto seemed to have no answer for David Pastrnak and company.
The Leafs 64.7% penalty kill success rate ranked them ahead of only the King, Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes among playoff teams. (All stats from NHL.com)
Considering also the fact that the Leafs have some of the best penalty killers in Jake McCabe, Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubuskin and Simon Benoit that could make key blocked shots and move bodies out on the back end, it is quite surprising that they didn’t have more success than the results showed. Nevertheless, losing the overall special teams battle once again is a recipe for disaster for any team, not only for just the Leafs.
Failure to Capitalize on Chances
As mentioned before, with both sides playing almost equally as well, at least during 5-on-5 situations, one of the key things is to be able to capitalize on chances whenever the opportunity presents itself.
With goals being hard to come by for both clubs, as just 30 goals were scored in total during the seven-game series, the Leafs needed to convert on more of their opportunities, but failed to do so. On the other hand, the Bruins masterfully did so time and time again.
A prime example of this was in Game 7 when Connor Dewar went in on a breakaway against Jeremy Swayman during the second period but failed to score. It would have given the Leafs huge momentum going into the third period with the lead but to no avail.
Then during the third period, Edmundson couldn’t convert on a beautiful three-way passing play that would have put the Leafs up 2-0 and take full control of the game.
Finally, Boston would get their lone great scoring chance during overtime on a fortunate bounce off the corner and Pastrnak would promptly bury the dagger into the Leafs net. In a game of inches, that is the difference between winning and losing.
Injury and Illness Troubles
The Leafs had quite the encounter with some bad luck heading into the playoffs this year when it came to the injury front.
After seeing their roster be about 100% healthy going into their tough matchup against the Bruins, they would see some of their best players go down to mysterious yet serious enough ailments such that they were unable to dress for key games during the series.
William Nylander had to miss the first three games of the playoffs due to what was deemed a case of severe migraines.
In addition, star centre Auston Matthews also had to miss two do-or-die games for the Leafs due to an undisclosed illness and an injury. The illness, which he played through earlier in the series, led him to getting the injury.
On top of that, rookie goalie Joseph Woll, who almost single-handedly won Games 5 and 6 for Toronto, had to sit out the seventh and deciding game because of an undisclosed injury that he incurred from Game 6.
Then there was the perpetually disappointing Mitch Marner who was only one month removed from a high-ankle sprain that, by all rights, should have kept him out of the lineup for another month.
Obviously, the Bruins also had some bumps and bruises of their own, but none in particular that affected their main stars.
As for the Leafs, it happened to their key players that have helped carried the team throughout the regular season. So there’s no doubt it had at least some effect on the potential outcome of the series, like it or not.
Making the Right Moves at the Right Time
Finally, when the game plan for the Toronto Maple leafs wasn’t working after the first few games of the series, they seriously needed some changes to help them get out of their losing ways.
However, many times the adjustments weren’t made in time by head coach Sheldon Keefe before it was too late.
This included changing up the lines when the offense apparently wasn’t clicking, making a goaltending switch that should have occurred before the Leafs were on the brink of elimination, and changing their style of play to a stronger defensive game that we witnessed during the last three games in the series, but it came just too little too late.
On the other hand, the Bruins were quick to recognize Swayman had the hot hand and stuck with him for the rest of the series after one struggling loss by Linus Ullmark.
In addition, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery would often adjust his lines in-game, like stacking Brad Marchand with Pastrnak in offensive zone faceoffs to maximize their scoring chances, and shortening the bench when he saw a particular line not apparently working.
In the end, both teams did end up making the right moves, but Boston did it at the right time compared to the Leafs.
manual
Hopefully, the Leafs can learned once again from their experience and be back and stronger next season when come playoff time.