Bruins
The Bruins will have their work cut out for them when it comes to slowing down Toronto’s high-powered offense.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s been five years since the Bruins and Maple Leafs met in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But even though both rosters have gone through plenty of changes since 2019, the gameplan remains the same for Boston in yet another playoff bout against their Original Six foe.
It’s going to be a battle of offense vs. defense, with Boston’s goalie tandem set for its toughest test yet against the likes of Auston Matthews and the Leafs.
Here are five keys for Boston as it looks to punch its ticket to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Win the netfront battle — down both ends of the ice
In some respects, the Toronto Maple Leafs are a bit like a “Fast & Furious” sequel. The supporting cast tends to be a little different every couple of years, and the set pieces tend to get reshuffled to avoid getting stale. But at the end of the day, it’s still the same old script.
And even though this current Maple Leafs team has added a bit more sandpaper to its potent offensive arsenal, this is still a top-heavy roster marred by several critical flaws in the D-zone.
So long as the Bruins make a concerted effort toward fighting for inside ice, Toronto’s goalie duo of Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll don’t exactly inspire much confidence when it comes to snuffing out Grade-A scoring chances.
The Bruins have generally opted for a “quality over quantity” approach under Jim Montgomery when it comes to shot generation, ranking 26th in the league in 5-on-5 shot attempts per game (54.41) this season — but 11th in 5-on-5 high-danger scoring chances per contest at 11.56.
The Bruins have made it an emphasis this season to converge more bodies toward the net, leading to more rebounds, tips, and the expected chaos that usually leads to 5-on-5 offense during the postseason.
Boston could still use more shot generation from the blue line, but the Bruins have been one of the better teams in the league in terms of orchestrating chances in and around the slot. Adhering to that formula in the playoffs could make life miserable in a hurry for Samsonov and Woll.
“The ice shrinks in the playoffs,” Pat Maroon said Thursday. “There’s not a lot of time and space. … The playoffs are just a heavy game, big, physical, strong on pucks. The willingness to do it every single night. And I think for us, it just comes down to just compete.
“And like I said, win every puck battle. It’s not the flashiest. I think if you go back in time, and where all the goals are scored in the playoffs are probably in front of the net, right?”
The Bruins will need to play a simple, scrappy game in the offensive zone in order to dole out damage against Toronto’s malleable offense. But down the other end of the ice, the Bruins’ D-zone structure needs to remain rigid against a devastating Toronto offense — especially at 5v5 play.
The Maple Leafs’ forward corps is no joke — headlined by star talent like Matthews (69 goals), William Nylander (98 points), Mitch Marner (85 points), and John Tavares (64).
But Toronto is not exactly a run-and-gun club on offense, opting instead to generate a salvo of quality chances from the slot off of an aggressive forecheck. Matthews can laser pucks into twine from just anywhere on the ice, but he did most of his damage this year while camped around the low slot — usually off a slick feed from behind the net.
Even though Boston ranked fifth in the NHL this season in goals against per game (2.70), that might have been a byproduct of its stellar goaltending.
After all, the Bruins relinquished 11.42 five-on-five high-danger scoring chances per game this season, which ranked 24th overall (per Natural Stat Trick) — and last among the 16 teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Leafs, meanwhile, averaged 12.61 high-danger chances at five-on-five, third in the league.
Even with two strong goalies in place in Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins cannot let a team as lethal as the Maple Leafs generate a boatload of quality shots around the net.
Toronto is far too talented of an offensive team, and they’ll make the Bruins pay time and time again.
Make the most of your top advantage … in net
It remains to be seen who will get the Game 1 nod for the Bruins on Saturday night at TD Garden.
It’s also unclear just how Montgomery will utilize his goalies after alternating between Ullmark and Swayman for the final 25 games of the regular season.
Will Boston really switch off between goalies with every start, or perhaps opt to change netminders following a loss? It will be a fascinating storyline to follow, especially after the team deviated from that script in disastrous fashion last spring.
But regardless of which netminder Montgomery turns to, the Bruins have to like their chances — especially when contrasted with Toronto’s goalie situation.
Since the drama of the trade deadline, Ullmark has won six of his last games while sporting an impressive .935 save percentage. Swayman posted a pedestrian .903 save percentage in the second half of the regular season, but always seems to elevate his game against Toronto.
During Boston’s current seven-game win streak against Toronto, Swayman is 4-0-0 with a .961 save percentage.
Down the other end of the ice, Samonsov is sporting just a .890 save percentage over 40 games this season, to go along with a .899 save percentage against the Bruins over seven career games.
Woll (.907) has stronger regular-season numbers than Samsonov, but he struggled to solve Boston in his three career meetings, going 0-2-1 with a .865 save percentage.
Yes, both Ullmark and Swayman will have their work cut out for them against a Toronto offense that can light the lamp in a hurry. But the Leafs’ strengths up front will be negated if Samsonov and Woll can’t keep Boston off the board down the other end of the ice.
Capitalize on special teams
Most Bruins fans are likely fretting over this scenario, considering that Boston’s power play is limping into the postseason with a 17.9% success rate since March 2.
But Toronto’s power play has actually managed to be even worse over that same stretch, cashing in on just nine of its last 72 opportunities on the man advantage (12.5%). Boston’s PK finished the year strong, ranking fourth in the NHL with an 85.7% success rate since March 1.
While Boston’s shorthanded unit seems to be trending in the right direction, Toronto’s PK grouping has labored all season long. The Leafs are just 23rd in the NHL this season with a 76.9% success rate in shorthanded situations, with Boston cashing in on 30% of its power-play bids during its 4-0-0 showing against Toronto during the regular season.
Boston’s offense may not measure up to Toronto’s, but the Bruins can narrow the gap if their power play starts humming once again.
Slow down at least one of Toronto’s top-six lines
It’s a task easier said than done when it comes to corralling some of Toronto’s potent offense personnel.
With Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe opting to slot up Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi next to Matthews to close out the year, the Leafs have elite talent sprinkled all across their depth chart.
Not only will the Bruins need to account for the Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi line, but they will also need to slow down a second line featuring Marner and Tavares — along with a third line that has a near-100-point player in Nylander driving play.
Nylander didn’t practice on Friday, which is something worth monitoring when it comes to Boston’s defensive gameplan.
The Bruins have rolled out a defensive super-pairing over the last week, with Montgomery opting to put his top two defensemen together in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm.
A Lindholm-McAvoy pairing could be tasked with snuffing out the scoring chances that the Matthews line generates. But that top-heavy approach with Boston’s defense could allow both Marner and Nylander to land punches against both the Grzelcyk-Carlo and Shattenkirk-Peeke pairings.
As such, Montgomery seemed to signal that the Bruins will opt for a flexible approach when it comes to juggling defensive assignments against Toronto.
“It’s good to have two really good defensemen playing out there,” Montgomery said Friday. “Who knows? We’re very flexible. We moved our defensemen all around. We can use Lindholm with McAvoy, Carlo, Peeke. We can use McAvoy with Grzelcyk, with Lindholm, with Peeke, with Carlo. He’s played with everybody. So, just because they’re slotted together doesn’t mean they’re gonna play together the entire game.”
Brandon Carlo actually fared the best among Bruins blueliners in matchups against Matthews during the regular season—Boston was even in goals scored (1-1) but held an 8-3 edge in high-danger scoring chances over the 31:22 of 5v5 ice time when Carlo and Matthews were out on the ice together.
Up front, the Heinen-Zacha-Pastrnak line will likely be tasked with sparking Boston’s five-on-five offense, which means that Boston’s other top-six grouping of Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand, and Jake DeBrusk might be asked to serve more as a defensive stopper against one of the Matthews/Tavares lines.
Answer Toronto’s pushback further down the depth chart
Toronto might be anchored by some high-end talent, but the Leafs have attempted to steel themselves for postseason hockey by adding some heft on the blue line — and some much-needed jam up front.
Ryan Reaves draws plenty of attention as a proven scrapper on the fourth line, but Domi (47 points) and Bertuzzi (14 goals in his last 26 games) have made a stronger impact as productive puck-retrievers and netfront assets.
Even though Toronto’s defense is still largely pedestrian (3.18 goals against per game, 21st in the NHL), they have added some bruisers on their D corps with Ilya Lyubushkin, 6-foot-5-inch Joel Edmundson, Simon Benoit (247 hits), and Jake McCabe (129 blocks).
The Maple Leafs have made a concerted effort to add some sandpaper to their roster this winter. But to their credit, the Bruins have largely responded with some of their most physical games of the year against Toronto — creating chaos on the forecheck and finishing every check against a blue sweater.
The Bruins will need to carry that physicality into the postseason, especially from further down on the depth chart.
But beyond hits, the Bruins will need some key cogs to provide some secondary scoring. A third line featuring Trent Frederic (zero points in nine playoff games) and Morgan Geekie (two goals in 24 playoff games) will have plenty to prove.
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