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About this Boston sweep …
Your game on ten:
1. The first attempts the Leafs had to make in this game were when they left, knowing that they were entering hostile territory – in a building full of bad memories – against a team that feels really good at home (the Bruins were 29- 9-3 at TD Garden this season). The first 5 to 10 minutes went exactly as the Leafs wanted. It did not happen much, the two teams felt each other with a lot of shifts and no sustained change a little early and helping the Leafs to settle in their game.
The next round was about what would happen if the Leafs played against the Leafs in the first period – such as a tight penalty from William Nylander leading the scoring and a Bruins power play goal orchestrated by Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, a bit like The first match started in this series last spring. The Leafs immediately reacted positively by generating consecutive receding offsets started by the Auston Matthews line and do not deviate from the game plan. While 90% of viewers watched: "We're going back again", the Leafs have responded well and a good sign: Match 1 was going to be very different this time around.
2 All eyes were on the evening and how the match between Marchand / Bergeron / Pastrnak would be 5 to 5 for the Leafs and it would be different this time. John Tavares and Mitch Marner answered this question quite energetically tonight. Marner was the best player on the ice for both teams, posting a 200-foot excellence (second and third constant efforts to return to defense), and of course he switched the game to 1-1. goal followed by the magnificent goal 2-1 shorthanded. Boston did not have an answer for Marner last spring and it looks like they will have a hard time finding one again this year.
Outside the faceoff, the Leafs get to work and Marner finishes with a scrum in front. 1-1. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/ImAEK42a4n
– Hotstove of the Maple Leafs (@LeafsNews) April 11, 2019
Nice shot of Marner on the penalty shot. 2-1 leaves. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/SJ9kKbXqJ7
– Hotstove of the Maple Leafs (@LeafsNews) April 12, 2019
Tavares was right behind Marner in the conversation for the best player on the ice – he won 62% of his draws, including big wins over Patrice Bergeron for the 1-1 goal and the 4-1 goal when he froze the match with an excellent effort of his knees. The Leafs won the match 5-5 on both the score sheet and the possession battle. Whenever this happens in the selection match, the Leafs odds skyrocket along with their deep advantage.
John Tavares scores the empty line after the faceoff. That should do it. 4-1 leaves. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/gszBDv2wQh
– Hotstove of the Maple Leafs (@LeafsNews) April 12, 2019
The best players on the team are more numerous than the others, and Tavares, Marner and Matthews have made a very encouraging start in this regard. That said, there is an incredible high-level line with a lot of pride on the other side of the series and a good start is just the beginning.
3 Would not you have written the script better from the Leafs' point of view than Nazem Kadri and William Nylander connection for a superb 3-1 insurance goal from a Kadri threaded extendable pass. Both players have had disappointing seasons but have the opportunity before them to completely reverse this playoff scenario by taking advantage of advantageous match situations in the third row role. The goal was immediately lifted; Nylander was engaged throughout the game and found another level of play in puck stoppage and competition in the offensive zone. Kadri, after a rather difficult start for him and his line, started throwing the body, running his mouth, and looked like Kadri again.
Nice pass of Kadri frees Nylander who buries him on the breakaway. 3-1 leaves. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/8ZYurlJSQs
– Hotstove of the Maple Leafs (@LeafsNews) April 12, 2019
The fracture in Boston is huge, but Frederik Andersen was rock solid and won the Bergeron duel at 5c5. He also allowed these two players (Nylander and Kadri) to start early in the series. The Coyle line made them catch early, but they reversed the trend and if they manage to materialize in this series, the Leafs could really exploit some mismatches with this pair.
4 Anyone who thought the series was going to be easy for Boston clearly stopped watching the playoffs after the Leafs' loss last year (seven by the way, after leading the third) and did not see what Tampa Bay had in this respect. Bruins team. The Leafs may not be Tampa Bay, but a year more experienced now (Matthews, Nylander, Kapanen, Johnsson, Marner, Dermott, etc.) and with Tavares added, they can set the tone for the Bruins and create serious four-line match-off challenges.
This match was played as the Leafs wished and they looked like a quicker and deeper team at 5v5 – the neutral zone was wide open enough, the Leafs were able to put the Bruins on the backhand, and they pointed out Boston constantly in the transition game. A significant portion of the Bruins' defense did not seem to be able to withstand the pace of ice play; The right-wing Leafs line up against Zdeno Chara throughout this series could be a major headache for Boston, as the Leafs are more intent on attacking that side of the ice with spin-offs behind him.
That said, we will see how the Bruins will adapt and if they will manage to better fight the neutral zone in the second game, because the Leafs will adopt this style of play all series long if they can.
5 We could see the first signs that Mike Babcock has more comfort in what he has at his disposal in the middle of the ice this time around. There were some chances to slip into the starting line of Tavares or Matthews against the Bruins' last six, but he mostly let the game go as Boston wanted it for the first 40 minutes (the match then changed considerably when the Bruins reduced their time (bench chasing the game). It looks like he's going to let these clashes go if he can and keeping a top priority. it's a nice luxury if you can say, "We're pretty confident of what we have here not to oversee this," and in a perfect world, it helps the Leafs to skate the other team on the ground. 60 minutes. Of course, the best shots are one thing, but the game situations (chasing or directing) dictate everything at the end of the day.
6 Just 6:40 in ice time at 5v5, but it was a big match of the fourth line of the Leafs, which has several times helped to tilt the ice and set up the Leafs' score lines for the next quarter-game with some momentum and / or offensive offensive playoff by providing the kind of grinding in depth which was a serious point of questioning for this Leafs team entering the series. Connor Brown grabbed the first big shot of the first period and drove the net and mixed everything up (his best match for a long time); Trevor Moore scratched on the front of the stage, kept his feet moving and resisted tons of abuse to extend the cycles. While they played less than seven minutes, they relied on the fourth line with four teams in the third period (one more than the second and one less than the first).
Brown demolishes Johansson with great success. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/edCaKXAyOk
– Hotstove of the Maple Leafs (@LeafsNews) April 11, 2019
7. The other part of the adversity that the Leafs had to contend with occurred in the second period, in a period of about 5 to 10 minutes during which the Bruins came off with wins. consecutive and heavy shifts (single zone). They needed cross-help for a Charlie Coyle scoring opportunity and some big stops from Frederik Andersenbut the Leafs withstood the wave and generated three A-scoring opportunities in the counterattack. One of them ended in a crucial goal in terms of insurance, before Rask dismissed a breakaway for Tavares and a chance at the man for Auston Matthews. If the Leafs can get Boston to continue the game more often than not in this series by dictating the pace of the games earlier and burying their opportunities, they will create many opportunities to put the games aside by catching the game. Boston; their blue line group as a whole does not have a very good speed of recovery.
8 The pair of defense that ended up making the most of the Bergeron match was the Muzzin – Zaitsev matching; the Rielly – Hainsey Matching was only a bit more of Boston's front row than in the fourth row. Both players had good defensive moments – Muzzin settled in and made some key defensive plays + first assists, and Zaitsev, as he struggled to move the puck and complete games at times, also made a few saves key defenses. Muzzin and Zaitsev finished at the top of the player rankings (66%).
Babcock thinks that these two shutdown cycles are better than those of the Leafs' blue line (I certainly agree with Muzzin), but there have certainly been a few moments when to move the puck out of his zone were less than inspiring confidence. This has helped a lot that the Leafs have an advanced line that provides adequate support and generates offensive zone time in the Tavares line. This will be an interesting situation to watch.
9 A pair of defense that will have to gel quickly is the Gardiner – Dermott combo because there were some nervous games with the puck for those two and they did not seem totally comfortable or synchronized with each other with regard to timing. This partly contributed to the difficulties of the Kadri line to start the match. Gardiner finished the night with one shot for / 12 against and played only 16 minutes and a change. Undoubtedly, this is largely due to the fact that these are only a few games that can not be seriously injured. It's a couple that could potentially make secondary matches break, but they will have to settle in, and we'll have to see how Gardiner's ice time will flow from there, which will tell the distance that separates it from 100%. is right now.
10. Frederik Andersen started the Bruins series last year by dropping five out of 40 in the first game and three out of five in the second game (eventually giving way to Curtis McElhinney). Needless to say, another big need for the Leafs was Andersen to start this series well. He did just that, stopping everything he was asked for outside of Patrice Bergeron's unstoppable hobgoal goal. His biggest streaks took place in the Bruins' second-period pressure, but he made quick stops over time.
Course of the game: 5v5 shooting attempts
Game Highlights
After the match: Mike Babcock
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