Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – The Maple Leafs are only a week into their Stanley Cup playoff run against the Boston Bruins, but they’re already at a sort of crossroads.
 
Trailing Boston 2-1 in the best-of-seven series going into Thursday’s Game 4, the Leafs will be at one of two junctures by night’s end: win, and the series shifts back to Boston as a best-of-three; lose, and face the unenviable task of trying to take three consecutive contests from the Bruins, including two on Boston’s home ice.
 
“This is what I do – I get up today, get ready for today. And when you win today in the National Hockey League, everything is okay,” said Mike Babcock after the Leafs’ optional skate on Thursday. “Same thing I tell you at Game 1, Game 7, and Game 52. It’s a big game for us today. It’s the one we’re playing, so it’s the biggest one of the year. Just like every other game.”
 
To start closing the gap on Boston with a 4-2 win in Game 3, the Leafs dug back into their roots. Boston outclassed Toronto in the series’ first two games, where the Leafs’ patented speed game was sorely lacking. A good start and uptick in physicality on Monday allowed Toronto to dictate most of the pace, and the outcome has renewed the Leafs’ confidence.
 
“[Speed] is one of our strengths, and when you’re playing in a playoff hockey game you have to play to your strengths and do what you do best,” said Zach Hyman, who has one goal and two assists in the postseason. “For us, that’s playing fast and hard. Boston was obviously physical with us in the first couple games and we responded well in Game 3. It’s hard to be physical when the other team plays fast, so we have to be fast and outskate them.”
 
Beyond just the final score, the Leafs have tapped into a multitude of positives worth building on, the most important of which was holding Patrice Bergeron’s line with Brad Marchand and David Pasternak off the scoresheet in Game 3.
 
That trio burned the Leafs for a combined 20 points in the first two games in Boston, but each forward was shutdown with a minus-two rating by the revamped checking line of Patrick Marleau, Tomas Plekanec and Mitch Marner on Monday.
 
The Leafs might have contained one the NHL’s most elite offensive lines for a night, but past success doesn’t guarantee future results. Pushback from Boston isn’t only inevitable, it’s expected.
 
“Every game we get to know each other more, know how the series is more, so in every game teams elevate and teams get better so we expect no different from Boston,” said Hyman. “They’re going to want to respond from Game 3, so we have to elevate our game. We’re the ones who are down in this series. It’s on us for sure.”
 
To hear the Leafs tell it after returning from Boston in a 2-0 deficit, there was a long way to go towards being at their best in these playoffs. The goal was to chip away one shift, one period, one game at a time. It’s the blessing and curse of a postseason series that opponents become intimately familiar with each other, with a fine line between making the right adjustments and sticking with what works.
 
“I think it’s real important to do what you do, but I also think it’s real important to understand what’s going on each and every night,” said Babcock. “We [adjust] all year long for whatever team we’re playing. The room in the series is going to be less and less if both teams continue to compete. Often in a series is one team shows they’re more dominant than the other, and then separates. But if we do our part here tonight, it shouldn’t.”
 
The Leafs doing their part includes everything from improving the penalty kill (which has given up five power-play goals over the first three games) to keeping the heat on Bruins' netminder Tuukka Rask (who has faced 40 or more shots in two of the last three outings). 

The postseason takes months to arrive and mere days or weeks to end for some teams, a fate Toronto is keen to avoid. Doubling their series win total is a good first step towards playoff success.
 
“This is a big game for both teams. If they win, they’re going back 3-1 to their building,” said Jake Gardiner. “I think this is going to be a pretty [intense] atmosphere in here tonight, both teams are going to be ready to go…Our whole team understands that [playoffs aren’t] going to come around every year, and that gives us that much more motivation.”
 
Maple Leafs projected lineup vs. Boston in Game 4:
 
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Plekanec-Marner
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Brown
Johnsson-Moore-Kapanen
 
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Polak
 
Andersen starts
McElhinney