Toronto Maple Leafs vs Boston Bruins - Round 1

[princedpw]

Kadri has shown he is capable of playing very well defensively against top centres. And then you can use those two other elite centres to destroy the Bruins' inferior 2nd and 3rd lines. I actually think it's a pretty good strategy but hey, I thought Luca Caputi was gonna make it...

Kadri, maybe. But Moore and Kapanen would get eaten alive out there.

I don't see how it can possibly be any worse than how badly that line outplayed us last playoff. I like the idea of letting the Kadri line try to neutralize that threat as best as possible and having the others dominate offensively. And I think Moore will be a heck of a lot more effective than Marleau at this stage.

Bergeron?s line is possibly the best in hockey so anyone will struggle.  Still, Kapanen seems as well suited to defending against them as any winger on the leafs (yes, there would be competition from Marner and Hyman) ? fast, strong, good back checker and good in transition. Moore, i have less data on but he has shown himself a relentless back checker as well who can help with possession and transition.

Any line that plays against Bergeron is going to find its offense suppressed. I?d rather have Kadri?s offense suppressed than Tavares.

But a tweak I would do would probably be to play Tavares in the offensive zone and Kadri in the D zone against them. They are going to play 22+ minutes per night so there is going to be more than one line against them anyway (i dont want to play kadri for 20+ minutes)

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Bergeron?s line is possibly the best in hockey so anyone will struggle.  Still, Kapanen seems as well suited to defending against them as any winger on the leafs (yes, there would be competition from Marner and Hyman) ? fast, strong, good back checker and good in transition. Moore, i have less data on but he has shown himself a relentless back checker as well who can help with possession and transition.

Those types of physical traits aren't the key to defending the Bergeron line, otherwise any team with a good bottom-6 could do it. It's hockey sense, which is also the key to the Bergeron's line success. And depite how hard they work guys like Kapanen and Moore aren't elite in that area. That's what separates the star players from the 3rd or 4th liners. If you want to shut down or at least limit Bergeron and Marchand you need players who think the game as well as they do, and that means Tavares and Marner.

 

[Bender]

What is different for the Bruins this time?  How did they manage the league?s 2nd best record despite many injuries to top players?

They didn't manage all those points when everyone was injured. They went on one of the biggest runs in history picking up points in 18 straight games? Can't sustain that forever. They sputtered near the end just like us. Rask has worse numbers than Andersen in the last month.

The Leafs were as good in almost every metric over the last month as the Bruins, just one happened to get wins and one didn't. I think that's why a bunch of us aren't as down on the team.

 

[Bender]

Oh, Leafs in 7!

 

[Zee]

Oh, Leafs in 7!

I want no part of game 7.  I know it's irrational and the past series have no bearing on this year, but losing twice in game 7 in Boston in recent memory just makes me nervous. I don't want to see the trifecta of a third straight game 7 loss

 

[L K]

How did they manage the league?s 2nd best record despite many injuries to top players?

Bergeron, 16 games Pastranak, 16 games McAvoy, 28 games Krug, 18 games Chara, 20 games

Matthews, 14 games Nylander, 28 games Gardiner, 20 games Dermott, 18 games Andersen, 7 games

From what I can tell these were the primary injuries on both teams. I'm not saying that each player beside each other is directly comparable (Pasta is obviously vastly outperforming Nylander this season) but it's somewhat close.

That?s a nice comparison. Thanks.

The other aspect of my question is how the bruins managed to improve this year.  I mean, we got Tavares ... why did they do so well? Their backup goaltender?

They didn't?

They won 1 fewer game and have 5 fewer points than last year.    They scored 11 fewer goals and gave up 1 more goal than last year.  They had a shockingly similar year to last year.  Bergeron missed his usual 15 or so games.  They traded losing games from Pastrnak but getting additional games out of Marchand.

 

[L K]

Kadri has shown he is capable of playing very well defensively against top centres. And then you can use those two other elite centres to destroy the Bruins' inferior 2nd and 3rd lines. I actually think it's a pretty good strategy but hey, I thought Luca Caputi was gonna make it...

Kadri, maybe. But Moore and Kapanen would get eaten alive out there.

I don't see how it can possibly be any worse than how badly that line outplayed us last playoff. I like the idea of letting the Kadri line try to neutralize that threat as best as possible and having the others dominate offensively. And I think Moore will be a heck of a lot more effective than Marleau at this stage.

If we are playing Kadri the most most and constantly chasing the Marchand line around the ice we lose this series.  The Leafs need to get away from this line vs. line matchup approach.  Our depth is better than Boston's.  Boston's 1st line is a better individual line because it is loaded up in a way that we don't use our forwards.  Boston's 4th line is better than our 4th line.  Don't roll 4 lines but just try to not get bad lines caught against each other.  The 4th line can't get caught out against the first line.

We simply don't have a line built to shut down a 100 point player and trying to line match that way just limits how much time Tavares and Matthews get on the ice.

 

[cabber24]

Prayer might work. Then again....

I'm hopeful the Leafs can play their best and win the series; finally getting over the hump, but I'm not expecting it. Even though they've only really lost to Boston once with this core (2013 was totally different), it just *feels* like they're our nemesis.

Reminds me of the feeling I had in 1992 with the Jays vs Oakland in the ACLS, Jays always seemed to lose to the A's, Eckersley would close the door late and the Jays couldn't win. I didn't believe the Jays would win that series. Then Alomar hit that home run, and everything changed. Older folk on here will know what I'm talking about.

Every playoff year I hope for the best but expect the worst. So here goes another kick at the can.

Anything can happen, that unexpected Alomar homerun in a game the Jays were supposed to loose turned into TWO world series.

I am having a hard time believing they can win. The Leafs have been bad for a large portion of the season and didn't correct it going into the playoffs. I am not even sure Babcock knows his lines yet? Is Marleau going to be on Matthews wing? I certainly hope not. Reilly needs to be playing 30 minutes per game and Tavares/Matthews need a lot of ice time as well. If Babcock plays Kadri 30 minutes a game chasing the Bergeron line we're done before this starts. We have the depth, roll the best and let them chase.

 

[bustaheims]

I think the team needs to get away from having a single line focused on shutting down another specific line. Spread the work across the top 3 lines - they can all handle it to various degrees - and focus on playing your game rather than reacting to the way the other team plays. Play to your strengths, not theirs.

Leafs in 7.

 

[cabber24]

I think the team needs to get away from having a single line focused on shutting down another specific line. Spread the work across the top 3 lines - they can all handle it to various degrees - and focus on playing your game rather than reacting to the way the other team plays. Play to your strengths, not theirs.

Leafs in 7.

Babs will be rolling Brown and Hyman the whole game. It's so predictable, just play your best as much as possible.

I just looked at the stat sheets from last years playoffs and the ice time distribution amongst the Leafs forward was way to flat. Hyman led the forwards in ice time most games. Boston's distribution so obviously favored their best players. Why can't Babcock figure this out? Play your best and play them A LOT! Komarov went from a lot of ice time to scratched when we all knew the scratch should have taken place when choosing the playoff rosters. I hope Babcock gets out of the way this time around.

 

[Redleaf]

This will be fun. Too close to call an outcome, but I really want to see which leaf players elevate their game, and which ones don't - and make off season adjustments accordingly.

If last year?s playoffs were any indication I bet we see Marner and Kapenen raise their games a notch or 2. I also bet Tavares plays lights out along with (hopefully) Anderson. The other key players that must UP their games for the Leafs to prevail are Matthews, and NYLANDER.

BTW. Who remembers when the sens we?re supposed to beat us in four straight games? They beat us every regular season game that year too.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/HennyTweets/status/1115269713628626945

Probable game 1 defence pairings. I still wish we got to see more of Muzzin-Rielly, but this gives us 3 pairings that Babs will trust against any Bruins line.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Forward lines at the first post-season practice:

Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Johnsson-Matthews-Kapanen
Marleau-Kadri-Nylander
Moore-Gauthier-Brown

Nylander and Matthews split up. Don't love it, I think that they're at their best together, but if all goes well it'd give the Leafs a huge advantage in the L3 match-up. Also it's not like that's set in stone.

 

[cabber24]

Forward lines at the first post-season practice:

Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Johnsson-Matthews-Kapanen
Marleau-Kadri-Nylander
Moore-Gauthier-Brown

Nylander and Matthews split up. Don't love it, I think that they're at their best together, but if all goes well it'd give the Leafs a huge advantage in the L3 match-up. Also it's not like that's set in stone.

Glad Marleau in not on Matthews line but I wish Nylander was. Nylander on a "shutdown" line is a little worrisome. I would swap Nylander and Kapanen.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Glad Marleau in not on Matthews line but I wish Nylander was. Nylander on a "shutdown" line is a little worrisome. I would swap Nylander and Kapanen.

It's not a shutdown line.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Lines from Boston's first post-season practice:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Kuhlman
Johansson-Coyle-Heinen
Nordstrom-Acciari-Wagner

Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Kampfer

Somewhat noticeably absent from that group is David Backes, who at least projects to be a healthy scratch in game 1. Backes is well past his prime but I'm still a little surprised he isn't on the 4th line there. Without him Boston's forwards really don't seem that much bigger/stronger than ours.

John Moore, Kevan Miller, and Sean Kuraly will all likely start the series on the IR but might appear later on. Miller is a big, physical presence on their blueline so again they lose a bit of their size advantage there.

 

[cabber24]

Glad Marleau in not on Matthews line but I wish Nylander was. Nylander on a "shutdown" line is a little worrisome. I would swap Nylander and Kapanen.

It's not a shutdown line.

Agreed. Thankfully, it looks like Babs will be trusting his best against theirs.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Boston's two trade deadline-ish acquisitions haven't exactly panned out for them so far. Marcus Johansson has just 1 goal and 3 points in 10 games and missed 10 games with a lung contusion injury. Charlie Coyle has just 2 goals and 6 points in 21 games since becoming a Bruin. Ryan Donato, the guy he was traded for, had 16 points in 22 games with Minnesota post-trade.

 

[Andy007]

Kadri has shown he is capable of playing very well defensively against top centres. And then you can use those two other elite centres to destroy the Bruins' inferior 2nd and 3rd lines. I actually think it's a pretty good strategy but hey, I thought Luca Caputi was gonna make it...

Kadri, maybe. But Moore and Kapanen would get eaten alive out there.

I don't see how it can possibly be any worse than how badly that line outplayed us last playoff. I like the idea of letting the Kadri line try to neutralize that threat as best as possible and having the others dominate offensively. And I think Moore will be a heck of a lot more effective than Marleau at this stage.

If we are playing Kadri the most most and constantly chasing the Marchand line around the ice we lose this series.  The Leafs need to get away from this line vs. line matchup approach.  Our depth is better than Boston's.  Boston's 1st line is a better individual line because it is loaded up in a way that we don't use our forwards.  Boston's 4th line is better than our 4th line.  Don't roll 4 lines but just try to not get bad lines caught against each other.  The 4th line can't get caught out against the first line.

We simply don't have a line built to shut down a 100 point player and trying to line match that way just limits how much time Tavares and Matthews get on the ice.

Oh I agree with most of that. I certainly wasn't suggesting that Kadri's line plays all the minutes. I just want them, when they're on the ice, matched against Bergeron's as often as you can. I think they could wear that line down a little bit. But by no means should Trevor Moore be getting more minutes than, say, William Nylander.

 

[herman]

John Moore, Kevan Miller, and Sean Kuraly will all likely start the series on the IR but might appear later on. Miller is a big, physical presence on their blueline so again they lose a bit of their size advantage there.

Not going to be able to victimize Miller and McQuaid on the regular this time around