The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins in last year's playoffs, but they were clearly the better team and did not deserve to lose.
Had embattled Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving not have completely failed at the NHL Trade Deadline, the Leafs would have advanced. The GM added nothing but replacement players who prevented the Leafs from creating offense and for reasons no one has been properly able to articulate, he stuck with Ilya Samsonov in net and the Leafs lost the series, losing every game that they lost by a single goal.
Despite their GM's crap performance, the Leafs still almost won, but they fell short because all three of their best players were sick, injured or playing on one leg. They also had their savior, Joseph Woll, get injured in the final second of game six and miss game seven. It is beyond clear that the Leafs were the better team and it took like seventeen mini advantages for the Bruins for them to be able to pull off the win.
Exactly no one could have watched that series and thought the Bruins were the better team, and nothing either team did this summer changed that.
Toronto Maple Leafs will win Atlantic: Boston Bruins to miss the Playoffs
The Bruins - two years ago - had one of the best seasons in NHL history. That confidence carried over to last year where, despite losing their top two centres, they remained a top team, and nearly won the Atlantic division for the second year in a row. In fact, they missed out by only one point when Florida finished the year with four straight wins.
The Bruins success last year was due to having the third best 5v5 save-percentage in the NHL with 92.98. The year before it was almost 94%.
Those numbers are fantastic, but not sustainable. NHL goaltending being what it is, the most predictable thing about this year's season is that Jeremy Swayman will struggle to match those numbers. No doubt he's a good goalie, but he's basically been unbeatable for two years and in the NHL that just means he's in for a season of accidently ruining his numbers by having a whole bunch of random goals sneak by him.
The reason that is bound to happen is because he's gone two years with it almost never happening and it's just not possible that he is that good because no one is. The rest of the Bruins roster more or less stinks. Their blue-line does have Charlie McAvoy on it, but after that it's not as good as what the Leafs have.
The Bruins forwards might be the worst of any contending teams. They have no centres and after David Pastrnk, not one of their players from their top three lines would be in the Leafs top six.
The Bruins have dined out on having mega-elite goaltending for the last two seasons and that makes them extremely overrated going into this season. Expect them to finish below Ottawa and Buffalo and to miss the playoffs for the first time in a long time.