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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes from Maple Leafs practices and game-day skates. The Maple Leafs held a team meeting at the MasterCard Centre on Friday before travelling to Boston for Saturday night’s Game 5 matchup against the Bruins. 

Mike Babcock was blunt after Game 4. With Boston Bruins top-line centre Patrice Bergeron out with an upper-body injury and his team playing at home, the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach expected Auston Matthews and William Nylander to dominate the game. That didn’t happen. 

So, what went wrong? 

“Their whole defensive structure was good,” said Matthews, who fired three shots on net. “I mean, they’ve done a pretty good job of keeping us off the net and making it easier for their goalie to make saves. We definitely need to be better as a line. Tomorrow our backs are against the wall and we need to be good and we’re going to be good.”

Matthews and Nylander have generated some zone time. They’ve generated some chances. But through four games, the dynamic duo has combined for just one goal. Neither star spoke with the media in the immediate aftermath of Toronto’s disappointing Game 4 defeat. The pressure on the pair is clearly huge and only growing. 

“We just haven’t gotten to our level,” admitted Nylander, who had just one shot on goal in Game 4. “I couldn’t tell you why we haven’t been able to get to the level we can play at. We’re far from where we can be at.”

How much of that is on them and how much is it related to what the Bruins are doing against them?

“I think (it’s) on us,” Nylander said. 

With Matthews on the ice at even strength in the series, the Leafs have outshot the Bruins 39-29. Toronto also own a clear edge in scoring chances in that situation. But the goals favour Boston 6-2. 

Babcock outlined three ways the Matthews line can be better. 

“You’ve got to simplify your game,” he said. “The first thing is when you’re a good player and you’re used to having the puck all the time and you don’t have it, how do you get it? When you play better defensively, you get it faster. 

“The second thing is you’ve got to compete harder in all your one-on-one battles. 

“Then, to score at playoff time, you’ve got to be at the net. It’s real simple. You’ve got to be at the net and you’ve got to generate second chances. Both teams are doing the same thing. Most of those shifts last night were 50/50, not a whole bunch happened.” 

The coach had hoped the Matthews goal on Monday in Game 3 would help settle his young stars, but it didn’t work out that way. 

“You want to be good, you want to be under the gun and you want to be under the gun every spring for a long period of time because you have a chance,” Babcock said. “And when you learn how to handle it, you get a chance to win. If you let it get in your way, that’s on us.”

What’s the frustration level like for the pair? 

“Obviously, you’re mad, but, I mean, right now you just got to be relaxed,” Nylander said. “I mean, you can’t let too much get to you otherwise it’s just going to affect you worse.”

“Just need to stay with it,” Matthews agreed. “We can be better, like I said. This is a time where everybody needs to dig in. Down three games to one, but there’s a lot of belief in this room.”

“I thought we did tons of good things last night,” Babcock added. “We didn’t give up very much. We made mistakes on a couple two-on-ones and it didn’t go our way, but dig in and make it go your way. I think you have to enjoy part of the duress of this time of year. Embrace it. 

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With Nazem Kadri back after a three-game suspension, Babcock will need to change his lines. Tomas Plekanec filled in admirably on the second line with Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau during the last two games. The veteran pivot scored Toronto’s only goal on Thursday. Assuming he returns to fourth-line duty, can the 35-year-old maintain his level of play? 

“I actually asked him that. I asked him that same question,” Babcock revealed. “I said, ‘I don't know what I'm doing, but what if I do this? You finally found your game as a Leaf, we need you to be that good.’ I think he’s feeling good about himself and, obviously, it doesn't seem to matter on our group of forwards, we've got good wingers to play with.”

Gardiner takes blame for Bruins’ game-winner 

Jake Gardiner is taking responsibility for his role in Boston’s game-winning goal Thursday night. The 27-year-old defenceman tried to keep the puck in at the point, but an Adam McQuaid clearance got by him springing David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand on a two-on-one rush. 

“He chipped it off the wall, I thought I could beat him and then Pastrnak had more speed than I expected,” Gardiner explained. “I have to make a play either on the puck or the body and I got caught in-between. He’s a good player and if you give a player like that an opportunity he’s most likely going to burn you.”

A good player, but also a tired player. Boston’s top line had been on the ice for more than a minute before an icing call prevented them from changing, leading to the fateful faceoff late in the second period of a 1-1 game. 

“That was part of it, too,” Gardiner said. “I saw how tired they were and wanted to get them hemmed in and get an opportunity. Obviously, it was the wrong choice.”

It was back in 2013 during Game 4 that Dion Phaneuf made an ill-timed pinch in overtime, leading to Boston’s winner by David Krejci, which also put the Leafs down three games to one. 

Of course, the Leafs rallied from that mistake, eventually forcing Game 7. So, even though that series ended in a painful fashion, Gardiner and Kadri do have some experience being on a team that dug out of a big hole against this Bruins core. 

“We had a nothing-to-lose, mentality,” Gardiner recalled. “When you get on the edge of elimination you kind of give it even more than you already have. Whatever you have left, we’re going to lay it all out there. We’re going to be ready to go.”

“You gotta believe,” said Kadri. “That’s the most important thing. You have to trust one another. This would definitely make a good story … you never know how much things can change in the course of one game.” 

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Much like during the 2013 playoffs when the coaching staff showed players video of the scene at Maple Leaf Square to pump them up, Babcock is using the fan base to inspire his troops ahead of the do-or-die showdown on Saturday. 

“I don't know how many of you saw this, but last night out there in Maple Leaf Square, they put that on TV,” Babcock said. “I talked about the (amazing) national anthem the other day and then last night. To me, if you’re these players and you’ve seen that, you want to see it again. The only way we get to see it again is we’ve got to win to play. We’ve got to dig in. We’ve got to compete harder, we’ve got to play better.”

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The Leafs are expected to hold a morning skate at TD Garden at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.