Leafs weren’t ready for Bruins’ opening salvo
FORMER TORONTO STAR CAPTAIN ANALYZES WHAT WRONG IN GAME 1 nd
As much as everyone looks forward to playoff hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t look like they were ready for puck drop.
Saturday was still a good, physical game as everyone including me expected, with more than 50 hits for each side. But my biggest takeaway, first and foremost, was the Leafs taking a couple of dumb penalties that led to two power play goals. That hurts when Toronto’s penalty killing was pretty weak at the end of the year and wasn’t very good Saturday night.
I get how they were trying to come out and show they wouldn’t be pushed around in Boston’s rink. But Brad Marchand drew a couple of those calls, not because of anything he’d done to get the Leafs mad at him, but because of his reputation. They really wanted to go after him and they did, especially Max Domi. It seems like that backfired.
The Leafs being 0-for-3 on the power play is something that has to hurt, too. Which brings me to maybe Boston’s greatest strength, which it showed Saturday night — goaltending. Yeah, Toronto had 36 shots on Jeremy Swayman, but here’s a team that has two goalies in the top 10 in the National Hockey League with Swayman and Linus Ullmark. That’s no fluke.
And because this is a team game, both those guys play behind a defence that’s well structured and takes away those good opportunities for other teams in front. So, the Leafs, though having a lot of good scorers, must make the most of what’s given to them. A lot of times I saw Auston Matthews knocked down in the slot. He got in there a few times, but didn’t get many chances. You really can’t blame him for the loss;
I thought he played all right.
At the other end, there should be concern about Toronto doing a better job protecting Ilya Samsonov and the area around their own net. I realize the Leafs made some changes on defence this season, but looking at them as a whole, they’re not as big and robust a corps as other teams.
Boston is good at clearing out the vital areas of the opposition’s best forwards, as is Florida, so pick your poison when comparing the other team Toronto could’ve played this round. Boston scored some goals right in the crease, too. Toronto has bigger guys than before on its blue line, but at the end of the day, didn’t protect the net to its capabilities.
The faceoffs told us a lot, too. People will look at that stat — Boston 57 per cent to Toronto’s 43 — and say “what’s the big deal?” What it means is you’re starting with the puck that much more and good things are going to happen in a playoff situation. Toronto went on to make some poor decisions at the offensive blue line, bad pinches and so on, that led to odd-man rushes.
Perhaps that’s going to be different with William Nylander in the lineup, though the funny thing is they said nothing about how or why he didn’t play. We don’t know what it is or what caused it, but I have been in that difficult position of deciding if I could play hurt in playoffs or let a healthier teammate take my spot.
Game 7 against St. Louis in 1986, I had torn rib cartilage and the medics couldn’t freeze it. I took the warm-up and sat out. We lost 2-1. Did I make the right call? Who knows?
The next year against Detroit, I was playing with a broken hand from a fight after I’d accidentally punched the glass. Our doctor froze it for Game 6 in Toronto, but for Game 7 in Detroit, an intern travelled with us and he wouldn’t give me the needle. I had to get Detroit’s doctor to freeze it, but he didn’t do it properly and it wore off after the first period.
I couldn’t hold my stick and we lost Game 7. Maybe our regular doctor being there would’ve made the difference.
We don’t know what’s wrong with Nylander (no update on his status was provided Sunday), but my question is, if it was something bothering him at the end of the season, why play him the last two games?
It’s just one game. Let’s see how the Leafs respond and what lineup changes might be made.
Rick Vaive was captain of the Leafs for four years in the early 1980s, played 16 NHL and WHA seasons, is the author of Catch-22: My Battles in Hockey and Life, and can be heard on the Squid and The Ultimate Leafs Fan podcast with Mike
Wilson and special guests.