Parade of penalties buries Toronto in series opener
Boston scores trio of power-play goals to rout Maple Leafs at TD Garden
BOSTON 5, TORONTO 1
BOSTON The last time Ron Hainsey was in a playoff milieu, he raised the Stanley Cup.
In his first post-season game as a Maple Leaf, the veteran defenceman dropped the ball along with the rest of the team, including those acquired to bring some semblance of order under post-season pressure.
Hainsey was on the ice for the first three Bruin goals and culpable on a couple as Game 1 of the series unravelled Thursday into a 5-1 loss. The Leafs, who talked for days about sticking to the script, using brains to get by Boston’s brawn and not letting Boston’s special teams be a factor, made some shocking errors, topped by Nazem Kadri taking a late-game run at Tommy Wingels that might warrant a league suspension.
Boston opened and closed the night at raucous TD Garden with power-play strikes and had the winner with the extra man.
“Way too much time in our end, without question,” Hainsey said. “Outscored 3-0 on the PK, that’s most likely never going to get it done. Their power play made us pay. And not nearly enough offensive zone time for us. It seemed we played the majority of the game on our side, no long sustained pushes at their end. There was a little for about six minutes when we made it 1-1 going into the next period. From then on, they cranked it up and we didn’t answer.”
It was the fourth straight time the Leafs had lost Game 1 of a series dating back to 2004 and the third for their group that includes Kadri, Jake Gardiner, Leo Komarov, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk.
Boston’s top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak was as dangerous as advertised, combining for six points, Marchand opening the scoring with van Riemsdyk off and setting up Pastrnak for the dagger, a lastminute, second-period drive past Frederik Andersen that made it 3-1.
Earlier, the teams were exchanging a series of second-period power plays when Boston took the lead. With Patrick Marleau in the box, the Leafs were nearing the kill when Hainsey had a chance to clear that was cut off by Charlie McAvoy. Krejci relayed a pass in front, where David Backes won the puck scrum with Hainsey and swept it in.
Moments earlier, Marleau filtered a puck through the Boston slot, where Mitch Marner made a nice move to settle it, but put his backhander just wide.
“They’re a good team and their building was rocking,” said Morgan Rielly. “We know there are things we have to talk about, things we have to focus on. Moving forward, I expect us to be a lot better.”
The Bruins were up three goals at that stage and added a fourth after Kadri was given a major for trying to avenge an elbow by Wingels on Marner that wasn’t called.
The Leafs had already been parading to the box, including a too many men on the ice call early in the third.
“We need to go through it,” said Komarov. “We had some bad bounces. We had a tough day, but we need to get better on Saturday (for Game 2 in Boston).”
With the Leafs’ fourth line forced to stay out because of an icing, Boston coach Bruce Cassidy moved in his top line to take advantage. Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak ate up the Hainsey-Rielly combo and overwhelmed the forwards with Pastrnak beating Andersen upstairs. It capped an 8-1 shot advantage for Boston in the final five minutes of the first period. Sean Kuraly and Krejci had the late goals.
An overworked Andersen faced 40 shots and some unwanted traffic, trying to draw a Marchand penalty in the hopes the latter’s reputation would precede him. But now it’s Kadri who is in hot water.
TD Garden zealots didn’t need much to fire them up other than the lineup being announced. Then the Bruins topped it by having hall of famer Johnny Bucyk and local ALS patient and ice bucket challenge innovator Pete Frates waving flags at ice level. Throw in about 15 fist pumps from retiring anthem singer Rene Rancourt and the stage was set.
Putting big defender Zdeno Chara on guard-dog duty against the ineffective Auston Matthews line, the Bruins had the Leafs on their skate heels early. On Marchand’s goal, the combination of Zach Hyman being blocked out at the blueline and the PK pairing of Roman Polak and Hainsey too slow to react gave Torey Krug an easy pass. There was reason to give the play a second look for an offside ruling, but Leafs coach Mike Babcock decided not to risk the consequences.
Half the period was over before the Leafs awoke, stirred up by a brief tussle between McAvoy and Tyler Bozak. They started to fight off the Bruins and disrupt passes, one that resulted in Gardiner’s drive off the post. The Leafs’ speed was finally utilized when Hyman spied his chance on a free puck, battled past Krejci and around McAvoy for a nice deke. That gave Hyman five points in seven playoff games dating back to last year’s Washington series.
Despite the loss, Babcock likely won’t change anything unless there is league discipline and he must replace Kadri.
We know there are things we have to talk about, things we have to focus on ... I expect us to be a lot better.