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Round 1: Leafs @ Bruins

MindzEye said:
Who did we lose against them last series? Why does everyone think Boston is big and physical? Hits is a goofy stat I know, but fwiw, Boston was 15th in the league in hits (Toronto was 29th)...Montreal was 3rd ffs and I don't remember anyone concerned about injuries heading into any game against the Habs.

Boston was bottom 5 in blocked shots, so that's not exactly a strength of theirs. There one stand out "gritty" skill is in takeaways. They're 6th overall in takeaways, but the soft Leafs were 7th (and a better shot blocking team).

Too many people are caught up in Boston's reputation rather than Boston's reality. Very good team but they're neither big nor physical. They didn't beat us up in our series last year, they took better care of the puck and got stops when they needed them. Not a whole lot has changed with them (though we've added Tavares and Muzzin since) this season. It's still the same team that we had a 3rd period lead against in game 7.
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I did not mean physical play but dirty play


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Every team in the playoffs has a "concern" though.

Seriously look at every top team in the playoffs, other than Tampa, all of them have some sort of glaring weak point:

- Calgary's goaltending is bad, and putrid if they go with Smith as there has been some rumours of because "experience".
- Boston's starter has been terrible lately and they're a mediocre (aka, bad compared to most playoff teams) offensive club
- Washington is a mediocre possession team with mediocre goaltending (though in fairness to Holtby, he got hot enough to win a title last year....but .911 for the regular season isn't good) and are as bad defensively by the numbers as we are (they actually give up more chances than we do)
- San Jose's goaltending has been putrid this year
- The Isles are mediocre at best defensively and are pretty anemic offensively. They're the most goaltending reliant team in the playoffs.
- Pittsburgh gives up as many shot attempts as the Leafs and despite having their big 3, struggle to score goals 5 on 5.


That's every 100+ point team in the playoffs other than Tampa. All of them have flaws that are likely to be fatal.
 
CRL said:
I did not mean physical play but dirty play


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Who other than Marchand is known for that on Boston though? My original question stands. Who did they hurt in our series with them last year?
 
uncus said:
Agreed.
Both teams are above most other teams in terms of talent.
But the leafs defence is a concern
The numbers can say all they want, but when teams laugh and joke about the leafs not wanting to play defence or make the sacrifice it takes to be successful in that area, then I think it is safe to say that the leafs downfall will be their defensive play.
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the world is flat because everyone thinks it is flat. I only think the world is flat because all the people I talked to about it said it was flat. none of them used any measurements. but they are all convinced, so it must be so. if everyone is thinking the same thing, they cannot be wrong, can they? if they were wrong, not all of them would think it, right?
 
MindzEye said:
Who other than Marchand is known for that on Boston though? My original question stands. Who did they hurt in our series with them last year?
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They tried killing Mitch but Naz got himself suspended in retaliation


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CRL said:
They tried killing Mitch but Naz got himself suspended in retaliation


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you mean Tommy Wingels, who is no longer a Bruin? (no longer in the NHL fwiw)

pretty sure Backes is going to be a healthy scratch too. so much for the Bs truculence.

did you see the breakdown zeke posted of the two teams with heights and weights?

this legend of the big bad Bruins is just that, legend. no longer reflects reality.

we can expect dirty shit from Marchand cause he's a rat, and we can expect DOPS to give the Bs a free pass cause Jacobs, but who exactly are the goons we should be worried about targeting our best players?
 
CRL said:
They tried killing Mitch but Naz got himself suspended in retaliation


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[video=youtube;mBla7x1KhWo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBla7x1KhWo[/video]

Nobody tried to kill Mitch. Mitch avoided the Chara hit, Wingels came in a little high (should have been a penalty in fairness, but it wasn't intent to injure or anything), and Kadri went stupid.

So to answer my question, nobody. Nobody got hurt by a cheap shot in our last series against Boston, and a Bruin was the closest to getting hurt by a cheap shot in the series.

Also of course, even if this is proof of Wingels being a cheap shot artists trying to "Kill Mitch", he's going to have a hard time doing that from the Swiss League this year.
 
MindzEye said:
yeah, but we might be the only team whose goalie has sucked two first rounds in a row now. We have a bit more reason than almost anyone else to be concerned about our goaltending.



Except he was a ghost last series and it took Andy shitting the bed int he 3rd period of game 7 to lose the series. Matthews is an important player for us, but again, we have depth at centre that can overcome a bad series from Matthews. If Tavares puts up 4-5 goals in the series and Naz finds his form, we don't necessarily need Matthews. There's a safety net there. There's no safety net for Freddy.



Our scorers have been alive the entire 2nd half and yet we've struggled. It doesn't matter what your shooters do if you're getting .890 goaltending.
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It's a team sport. If Matty took over just one of the prior games (1-6), then there wouldn't have even needed to be a game 7 for Freddy to underperform in. Matty has to show up. 2 points from your best player doesn't cut it. Marner showed up with 9 points that series. If Matty was even a shadow of himself, we'd have won in 5 or 6.
 
The Bruins have turned themselves into a medium sized, fast, unphysical team right under the nose of the hockey media and nobody seems to have noticed. Boston is fast and well structured away from the puck. That's their biggest strength. They don't give a lot of space for you to skate and handle the puck in, but also aren't really dangeorus 5 on 5 aside from that one line (which might be broken up for this series).
 
Wayward DP said:
you mean Tommy Wingels, who is no longer a Bruin? (no longer in the NHL fwiw)

pretty sure Backes is going to be a healthy scratch too. so much for the Bs truculence.

did you see the breakdown zeke posted of the two teams with heights and weights?

this legend of the big bad Bruins is just that, legend. no longer reflects reality.

we can expect dirty shit from Marchand cause he's a rat, and we can expect DOPS to give the Bs a free pass cause Jacobs, but who exactly are the goons we should be worried about targeting our best players?
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All that being said, Chara is still a monster.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
It's a team sport. If Matty took over just one of the prior games (1-6), then there wouldn't have even needed to be a game 7 for Freddy to underperform in. Matty has to show up. 2 points from your best player doesn't cut it. Marner showed up with 9 points that series. If Matty was even a shadow of himself, we'd have won in 5 or 6.
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- It's a team sport
- It's Matthews fault

Pick one.


What I'm saying is simple. That there is no other singular position that has as much influence over winning and losing as goaltending. An elite performance from any single skater doesn't come close to guaranteeing a win. An elite performance from a goaltender comes damn close to guaranteeing a win. Freddy was .945 or better in 17 games the season. The Leafs lost exactly once in those games.

We were ahead in the 3rd period of game 7 before Freddy gave up a laugher and then another weak one on the go ahead. Just be average and the series was over.
 
Joe Haggerty
Bruce Cassidy "I think we're going to dress our fastest lineup (for Game 1). I just think that's how the series is going to start out."


Sounds like they are more concerned with keeping up with the Leafs, rather than pushing them around.
 
leafman101 said:
Joe Haggerty
Bruce Cassidy "I think we're going to dress our fastest lineup (for Game 1). I just think that's how the series is going to start out."


Sounds like they are more concerned with keeping up with the Leafs, rather than pushing them around.
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Yup. He later when on to say that last year the leafs were really physical in the playoffs which actually benefited the Bruins because it got the leafs off their game. He doesn't expect that to happen this year, hence the decision to go small and fast as opposed to big and slow.
 
Them falling into a track meet with us would be ideal

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Artnes said:
Them falling into a track meet with us would be ideal

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It's their best strategy as well. If they just try to bully the leafs by beating them up that won't exactly work in 2019. Both teams can and should play a highly skilled game at an elite pace. This physicality angle that people try to push is bizarre.
 
zeke said:
was really hoping Backes and Miller would be in. too bad.
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eh Backes will get in at some point. would be ironic if it was after the Leafs were taking liberties with the Bs skill guys. ha.

Cassidy seems to know what he's doing though. the Cassidy vs Babs match up is one that I'm not sure works in our favour.
 
ExceptionallyDumb said:
It's their best strategy as well. If they just try to bully the leafs by beating them up that won't exactly work in 2019. Both teams can and should play a highly skilled game at an elite pace. This physicality angle that people try to push is bizarre.
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I get it but they still have to play a structured defensive system. If they try to get into a back and forth with the Leafs we win that battle.

Bruins dont have the scoring depth to play that style

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