MAPLE LEAFS LET SEASON SLIP AWAY IN GAME 4 LOSS
No Bergeron, no problem as Bruins take 3-1 series lead against listless Toronto team
BOSTON 3, TORONTO 1
This is the game the Maple Leafs will look back at with dismay, wondering how it was they let this playoff night and this playoff series with the Boston Bruins slip away.
This is that defeat. The one that shouldn’t have happened. The one that will hurt like hell in June and July and August.
This was the game they let get away, when the Bruins weren’t great but were opportunistic enough to win, when too many Maple Leafs players skated on the periphery and played the part of passenger, when they gave away another freebie goal in the first minute of play and only scored once themselves in 60 minutes.
This was the night when the future of the Leafs — building a team around Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander — didn’t seem to be a very sound approach. In fairness to Marner, who did all the work on the only Leafs score in a 3-1 Game 4 loss, he was again Toronto’s most dangerous forward.
As he has been all series. The Leafs’ fourth line aside, he was just about the only dangerous forward.
For Matthews, his disappearance was more than symbolic: he was rather invisible on the ice and followed it up as a no-show with the media post-game.
“The great thing about playoff time and being a young guy is you get lots of lessons,” said coach Mike Babcock, clearly disappointed in the Leafs’ effort. “And no one is more aware of this than he is. I am assuming he thought he was going to come tonight and dominate the game. I thought the same thing with Willie. That didn’t happen. But the other people you’re playing against are pros and they’re trying, too, and they’re competitive.
“There is regular season competitiveness, there is first round Stanley Cup playoff competitiveness, it keeps amping up the whole way through. In order to find that out, you have to play better.”
There is a point in almost every playoff series when you can declare a victor before the series is over. That point is now. The Leafs can’t beat Boston three straight. Probably no one in hockey can.
But they could have beaten them Thursday night. This series should be tied. That’s what stings. The Bruins lineup without Patrice Bergeron so favoured the Leafs matchups at home. Matthews had the best of all matchups. It was set up for him to be dominant alongside the even more invisible Nylander.
Babcock had a short few words on Nylander.
“I don’t know,” when asked what was wrong with Nylander. “Not enough happened.”
The Air Canada Centre seemed to get quieter as the night grew longer and more discouraging. But really, two plays each way changed the game. The Bruins capitalized on opportunities. The Leafs did not.
“We had a breakaway and a good 2-on-1 and got nothing out of it,” said Babcock. “They had two 2-on-1s, one on a pinch, and one where we hit the guy in the knee pad.”
Brad Marchand scored on one — yet another winning goal for Marchand. The second came from the rookie Jake DeBrusk, on a terrific touch pass from David Krejci.
Krejci in on one goal. Marchand in on another. The first one starts with David Pastrnak.
The Bruins’ stars, even without Bergeron, coming up large.
The Leaf goal was started on a battle by Marner. Marner had the breakaway. Marner was in with Patrick Marleau on the 2-on-1.
There was lots of Marner. There was lots of Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson.
There wasn’t lots of Matthews and Nylander and the rest of the deep offensive Leafs.
“Their big players made the big plays that you need to make,” said Ron Hainsey, who didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to.
What’s left for the Leafs is to find some intensity, some emotion, more speed and some willingness to play a greasier game, some of the battle they lacked for too much of Game 4. This was the Bruins’ worst game of the series. They have to be chuckling ever so slightly to be ahead 3-1.
“We’re in a simple situation,” said Babcock. “You win (Saturday), you get to play again. You don’t win, you don’t get to play again. I think we can go to Boston and win a game.”
From the outside, he has to believe that. On the inside, he has to be wondering: How did they let this opportunity pass?
“We didn’t take advantage,” said the coach. “That’s on us.”