The Maple Leafs have made it to the second round for the second time in three seasons after their victory in the Battle of Ontario.
With the Maple Leafs now gearing up to face the Florida Panthers in the second round, it's time to look at what could be some X-Factors for Toronto in this series.
One of those X-Factors could be the blue line chipping in offensively. We saw it fairly often in round one with Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Simon Benoit all grabbing key goals in the six-game battle.
The scoring from the defence was virtually non-existent during the regular season, which is what made it even more surprising to see during round one. Now the real question is whether this is sustainable.
Why the Leafs' blue line can come up big Blue Line Can Come up Big
I don't see why the offence will dry up from the blue line. I understand that over a bigger sample size, it wasn't something we were used to, but the way Rielly, Ekman-Larsson, and Benoit scored is sustainable.
There are a couple of ways we saw them score. Both Rielly and Ekman-Larsson had goals with very good offensive reads. Rielly crashed the back post in Game 2 and William Nylander was able to bank it off of him and in. That is an elite read with good execution which is what Rielly excels at when he is at his best.
Ekman-Larsson's first goal in Game 1 was another good read to jump up into the play on the rush while he found space in the offensive zone during Game 4 and executed well on the one-timer. It was a fantastic pass from Nylander, but having defencemen who are capable of making reads like Rielly and Ekman-Larsson is an asset I was surprised didn't help this team during the regular season.
The other way they scored was just throwing pucks on the net. Benoit's overtime winner in Game 3 was simply a slapshot through a screen off a faceoff, and Rielly's goal in game one was throwing it on and getting a deflection off a Senator.
Getting traffic in front of Bobrovsky will be crucial in this series. Florida is a fantastic defensive team, so you may not get as many rush chances. In the past when Sheldon Keefe was the coach, this team got most of its offence off the rush. With Craig Berube, the style of play has changed.
If they want success in this series, they're going to have to get bodies in front of Sergei Bobrovsky. When you get the traffic with shots on the net, you're bound to get some good bounces as we saw in round one. This can significantly help get offence out of the blue line.
Morgan Rielly is also playing some very solid hockey, yet again, in the postseason. If he continues to play confidently, I can see him being a huge factor in this series.
It definitely won't be an easy series, and I think Florida ultimately takes it in six games, but if the Leafs are going to pull off an upset they're going to need everyone pitching in throughout the series.