Tougher does not equal better for Maple Leafs in Game 1 flop vs. Bruins

Boston Bruins for BetMGM bonus code 4.22

Credit: Apr 20, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Jake DeBrusk (74) celebrates his goal with his teammates during the second period in game one of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Set the tone. It’s one of the most repeated adages in hockey. During the playoffs, when intangibles grow in importance, it’s paramount, right?

Sure. But what if it’s the wrong tone?

The Toronto Maple Leafs evidently had a plan for their playoff-opening Game 1 Saturday against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden, one of the NHL’s most intimidating road environments. Leafs left winger Max Domi hacked and slashed with Bruins super-pest Brad Marchand before the puck even dropped to open the contest. The Leafs, determined not to be shrinking violets in those adrenaline-pumping opening minutes of a series, came out with elbows and shoulders flying, bludgeoning the Bruins on the forecheck.

It was a rousing two minutes and 26 seconds.

That’s how long it took for the Leafs’ attempt at asserting dominance to go awry. Enforcer Ryan Reaves accidentally pinned teammate Joel Edmundson in Boston’s zone while going for a splashy hit, the Bruins were gifted a 2-on-1, and boom, rookie John Beecher converted a pass from Jesper Boqvist on Boston’s first shot of the game. 1-0.

It would become the theme of a night that, for long-suffering Leafs fans, was a recurring nightmare resurrected, the umpteenth playoff letdown in this building against a team they haven’t defeated in a series since 1959. Every time the Leafs seemingly dialed up the belligerence, it burned them. They Leafs took five penalties to the Bruins’ three. The kill shots from Jake DeBrusk in the second period, putting Boston up 4-0, came on consecutive power-plays, the second one awarded after what Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe called an “undisciplined” slash by Domi on Marchand’s exposed wrist.

If you’ve watched the 2023-24 version of the Leafs, as constructed by GM Brad Treliving, what happened in Game 1 was, in a sense, on brand. This Leaf team is one of the biggest and heaviest in the NHL. It finished second in the league in hits and ninth in penalty minutes per game. The idea behind bringing in the tough customers like Reaves, Edmundson, Simon Benoit and Ilya Lyubushkin and scrappy scorers like Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi was to craft a team better equipped for trench warfare in the postseason. And, hey, the Leafs didn’t look physically overmatched in Game 1 for the most part. They equalled Boston 50-50 in hits. And yet, facing one of the scrappier teams in the league, a meat-and-potatoes edition of the Bruins on which David Pastrnak was the lone 30-goal scorer this season, the Leafs over-adjusted the dial.

“It’s just all about the mindset and keeping our composure and finding that fine line of competing and sticking up for one another but not crossing that line where we’re the ones being taken to the box,” Leafs superstar center Auston Matthews told reporters after the game Saturday.

They played into the hands of the less skilled team and forgot about the one major advantage they were supposed to have going into this series: the finesse side of their game. They are the NHL’s second-highest scoring outfit, yet they could barely buy one against the Bruins and steady goaltender Jeremy Swayman in Game 1, with their power play in particular struggling to generate clean looks.

“It was not good, it was really slow and disconnected,” Keefe told reporters. “Not good enough.”

Swayman, one of the best goalies in the NHL for much of this season, was a star in goal in Game 1. His counterpart, the Leafs’ consistently inconsistent Ilya Samsonov, delivered a microcosmic effort in which he made a few nice saves but also struggled to track the puck quick enough, particularly on the Brandon Carlo goal that made it 2-0.

But as Keefe suggested after the game, you can’t pin a loss on your goalie when you only score once. The Leafs obviously felt the shocking absence of star right winger William Nylander, who, coming off a 98-point season, hadn’t missed a game due to injury in eight years but woke up Friday with an undisclosed physical ailment. Left winger Bobby McMann, a big body who broke out for 15 goals this season, was also missed. But it’s not like the Leafs were rendered offensively barren for Game 1. They had 69-goal scorer Matthews, elite playmaking winger Mitch Marner, net-front presence John Tavares and more on hand. They didn’t lack for chance generation, outshooting and outchancing Boston in all three periods at 5-on-5. What the Leafs seemingly struggled to do was hold Boston’s zone for extended periods of time in Game 1. The Bruins’ D-corps, led by Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, looked fleet and capable of skating the puck out of trouble. The Leafs’ D-corps, particularly the pairing of Benoit and Jake McCabe, lumbered and repeatedly took too long to clear the zone.

For all their warts, the Leafs during the Matthews/Marner era have been the team against whom “no lead is safe.” They famously showed it when they rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring. But in Game 1 against Boston, Toronto lacked that same danger factor. Their tougher, heavier group didn’t look capable of a sustained berserker wave of offense, save from one nice shift from the Reaves line that yielded a David Kampf goal to open the third.

Toronto didn’t look scared of the Big, Brad Bruins in Game 1. But Toronto also looked like a team preoccupied with proving that point. You have to score more goals to win the game. Toronto is supposed to be better at doing that than just about everybody.

_____

New Year, New Gear! Check out Nation Gear’s latest collections – hoodies, t-shirts, hats and more for your favorite fans! Plus, keep up to date on upcoming events and travel by subscribing to our newsletter. Shop now at nationgear.ca

_____

Tougher does not equal better for Maple Leafs in Game 1 flop vs. Bruins

Recently by Matt Larkin