Leafs outmatched by Bruins in Game 1

Kristen Shilton

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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Before the Toronto Maple Leafs played Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins on Thursday, coach Mike Babcock was asked what the keys were to starting a playoff series like this on the road. His response: “Goaltending, getting started on time, being disciplined, good specialty teams.” The Leafs didn't bring enough of those elements to Game 1, falling 5-1 to the Bruins to go down 1-0 in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven series.

TAKEAWAYS

Late start, early finish dooms Leafs

All season long, the Leafs thrived in the first period. Their 61 goals in the opening frame were second most in the NHL, so starting “on time,” as Babcock put it before Thursday’s game, was a clear point of emphasis if Toronto wanted to set the tone early. That’s not exactly what transpired. The Bruins were clearly the superior team over the game’s first 10 minutes, not just getting on the board first with a Brad Marchand power-play strike, but by making the Leafs look like they were outclassed at both ends of the ice. Whether it was pressure put on themselves or just postseason jitters, the Leafs didn’t look anything like the team that won three of four games over Boston in the regular season. In an effort to give his players a re-set, Babcock could be seen miming to them on the bench to just take a deep breath and settle into their game. 

By the final few minutes of the first period, that message started sinking in. Toronto pulled itself up from an abysmal seven per cent possession near the period’s halfway point to nearly 35 per cent after 20 minutes. Zach Hyman evened the score at 1-1 with a sensational individual effort, muscling past David Krejci and Charlie McAvoy at the Boston blueline and going in alone on Tuukka Rask for the second playoff goal of his career. Entering enemy territory to start a playoff series is never easy, and while Toronto didn’t exactly withstand all of the Bruins’ initial push, they did find a decent response before their lack of intensity became too costly. 

And the Leafs were able to carry their momentum from the end of the first into the second period, where Toronto turned in their best 12 minutes of the game to start that frame. That didn’t result in any goals though, and by the third frame the Bruins were in total control, aided by three power plays the Leafs coughed up. There wasn’t much pushback from Toronto until it was too late, and the damage of their previous sins was too great to overcome. They were outshot and outchanced in every period, and played nearly two thirds of the game in their own end, leaving themselves little room for errors that continually cropped up. On Thursday, the Leafs looked like true underdogs, not a team that earned 105 points in the regular season. It was a stark reminder of what playoff hockey looks and feels like, and Toronto has to get back up to speed in a hurry. 

No star turns

The Leafs have relied on the prowess of their young stars – Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner most notably – to produce for them since they entered the league a year ago as rookies. Whether on the power play or at even strength, they’ve been pillars for Toronto offensively, and drivers on their respective units.

In their first shot at the Bruins, each of the young stars looked their age against a more veteran, seasoned group. While not a hard matchup, Matthews, Nylander and Hyman saw plenty of the Bruins’ top line consisting of Patrice Bergeron, Marchand and David Pastrnak, and it was a poor sign that Hyman was the only one of the three who got anything going for Toronto.

But it wasn’t just the forwards who struggled against the Bruins’ best. Morgan Reilly, who is having a career season, produced a team-worst 9.38 per cent possession and minus-2 rating going up against their top skaters. Ron Hainsey, who was paired with Rielly for much of the night, said earlier this week what makes Boston’s top line so special is their ability to make plays without hinting where the puck is going, their chemistry a nightmare to defend against. The Bergeron line was able to control possession when they were on the ice (at 79 per cent) while combining for six points, twice as many as the Leafs had between 18 skaters.

On the checking line with Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau, Marner didn’t fare much better. After proving in the second half of the season he can be as dangerous a shooter as he is a playmaker, Marner was back to his old ways passing the puck too often and fanning on open looks at even strength. His group had solid possession stats (48 per cent) but rarely looked as dangerous as they’ll need to be going forward for the Leafs to find success. Toronto’s depth has been a much-discussed asset leading up to this series, but their stars also need to come out and match wits with the Bruins’ big guns. 

Kadri has hearing Friday for charging Wingels

Based on the regular season alone, the power play for both teams in this series projected to be a major asset. The Leafs and Bruins had the second and fourth best power plays in the NHL respectively after 82 games, and both went into the postseason hot. In the five games preceding Thursday’s game, the Leafs had scored six goals on 17 attempts (35 per cent success), while the Bruins had converted in eight of their last nine games with the extra man.

But only one power play got hot in Game 1, and only one team showed adequate discipline when it mattered most, which made all the difference. While the Bruins were 3-for-6 on the man advantage, Toronto finished 0-for-3. The Leafs had three power-play chances before the game’s halfway point and couldn’t do anything with them on the scoresheet, although the chances and opportunities were plenty and their pressure was strong. Too many shots were whistling wide, however, and the Bruins did well closing shooting lanes and blocking pucks. Meanwhile, the Bruins’ power play couldn’t miss. Marchand scored in the first period with the power play’s first shot, and the Bruins’ second shot of the night. He easily burned Hainsey and Roman Polak on the penalty kill, and got in on Frederik Andersen with a nice backhand move. It was Polak and Hainsey down low again on Boston’s second power-play opportunity in the middle frame, fighting unsuccessfully to stop David Backes from chipping a puck over a splayed out Andersen to give a one-goal lead back to Boston. Hainsey looked like he was trying to get a change late in the kill but Toronto couldn’t clear the puck and the ensuing pressure was too great to withstand. 

Trailing 3-1 in the third period, the discipline that Babcock had preached about being so important in the playoffs completely disappeared in a hurry. The Leafs took successive penalties to start the frame, one for too many men, and one to Nazem Kadri for boarding, both of which they managed to kill off. Then Kadri took a blatant charging penalty, hitting Tommy Wingels while he was already down on the ice, for which he was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct. Krejci capitalized with the extra man, bringing their total to 3-for-6 on the power play, the first time Boston has scored man advantage goals in a playoff game since 2009. 

Kadri was obviously motivated to run into Wingels because on the play just prior, where Wingels had caught Marner in the head with an elbow. The lack of a call incited Kadri, but he now has a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Friday and could well be suspended for the hit. And that would be a potentially serious blow for Toronto going forward with their centre depth as precarious as it is, and with Matthews struggling already to get a handle on Bergeron, not having Kadri to hard-match with him at home later in the series could be a real issue for the Leafs. ​

Andersen under siege

Andersen turned in a solid enough performance through nearly two periods on Thursday but, like his teammates, the suffocating pressure by the Bruins eventually got to the goaltender, too. With the exception of Marchand’s goal early in the first, Andersen was key to the Leafs holding Boston at bay – he looked crisp in his net and was flashing the leather with authority when the Bruins snuck behind the Leafs’ defence for quality scoring chances. Like the rest of the Leafs’ penalty killers, he wasn’t nearly as strong as he’ll need to be in the series, with Backes’ power-play goal an example of Andersen being down too soon and trying to make the panic save after a failed clearing attempt. 

In the third period, Andersen was the much busier goaltender and he got shakier as it went on after the two penalties were killed off. There wasn’t much he could do when he was already down on Sean Kuraly’s goal, when Andersen made the initial stop and Kuraly batted the flying puck out of the air and into the net while falling over the goalie. But Krejci’s goal in particular was a soft one, in which he banked a puck off Andersen from below his own red line, a sign that Andersen didn’t know where the puck was, or to have his post adequately sealed off. The defensive play in front of Andersen dwindled dramatically as the game went on as well, but goaltending is paramount to success in the postseason and Andersen will undoubtedly strive to play with more efficiency and confidence in Game 2. In turning aside 35 of 40 shots for an .875 save percentage, Andersen posted the second-worst save percentage in his seven-game postseason career with the Leafs. 

Next game

The Leafs continue their series against Boston with Game 2 on Saturday. Puck drops at 8 p.m.​