The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are all tied up at 1-1 as this divisional match-up heads north. The puck drop is Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Who’s in the net in Boston? Will William Nylander suit up for Toronto? Will Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand show up for their respective teams? There are lots of questions from both sides heading into tonight.
Both teams have done a great job at taking away time and space from each other, and that style of play does suit the Boston Bruins. Especially without Nylander playing for the blue and white.
However, a big talking point for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the last few years has been the lack of physicality and toughness. The Toronto Maple Leafs have done a great job proving they won’t be bullied around, but the careless penalties are going to have to take a back seat. Boston has scored three powerplay goals in the first two games, and Toronto’s PK has not been great.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Earn the Split in Game 2
The Toronto Maple Leafs have not played their best hockey throughout two games. Yet, they’re still coming home with a split, and the momentum. In a city where the tension is thick and the noise is loud, heading to Canada down 0-2 would be a tough place to be in.
With 19 minutes left in the first period the game was 1-1 thanks to an opening goal by Morgan Geekie and the game-tying goal by Max Domi 14 seconds later.
Boston is a hostile place to play. For Toronto, 1-1 in the first is just fine, except, the last-second goal strikes again, with David Pastrnak giving the Bruins the lead in the dying seconds of the period, killing whatever mojo the Leafs were working with. In years past that goal would have sunk the Leafs.
With the game 2-2 in the third period, Tyler Bertuzzi scored what seemed to be the go-ahead goal. After review, it was called a no-goal due to a high stick. Again, in the past, you would expect the momentum to swing Boston’s way. Max Domi delivered a beautiful Hail Mary pass to Auston Matthews, who made goalie Ullmark look silly and scored the game-winning goal.
The Auston Matthews Show
The thinking up here has always been that we have Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and the so-far absent Willy Nylander. If they’re the best players on the ice there’s no reason why they can’t beat every team in this league.
They haven’t lived up to that ideology at all, but on Monday night Matthews had maybe the best playoff game of his career, scoring the game-winner plus two assists. With 3 points and 13 shots, he’s been the best player on the ice over the last two games, and with Nylander’s absence and Marner’s subpar performance, it’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
Where Oh Where Has Nylander Gone?
Since the start of the 21-22 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs have played 246 regular season games. William Nylander has played in 245 of them, including all 82 this year.
All of a sudden, he was not in the line-up for Game 1. The next day he was skating, participating in drills, smile on his face doing his thing. The next day, again, no Willy. There’s speculation that with two days off before Game 4, the Toronto Maple Leafs will give him the extra rest and he will miss tonight as well.
That’s fine, I guess, but the real issue here is we have no clue what has happened or why he’s not playing. Upper body? Lower body? Concussion? Tweak? Discipline? We have no clue, and in Toronto, no clarity just leads to a truckload of speculation, and all that does is add to what is already a very noisy media circus.
William Nylander scored 40 goals and 98 points this season, and with how tight this series has been so far, it is extremely obvious that his addition to the lineup would be a massive boost for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Boston Bruins Still Searching For Playoff Form
In Game 1 the Boston Bruins capitalized on a flurry of mistakes by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but didn’t look overly impressive apart from those opportunities.
D-man Andrew Peeke is considered week-to-week and did not travel with the team. Mason Lohrei has been called up to replace him. Lohrei is going to be a very good player for years to come but is very green when it comes to the playoffs. In 41 games this year he put up 13 points and was a -2.
In my previous previews, I mentioned the lack of depth is an ongoing issue for Boston, and that narrative isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Marchand and Pastrnak have 1 goal and 5 points combined, while Jake DeBrusk has 4 points all by himself. Those two guys are going to have to be more productive to regain the momentum that was lost on Monday.
What to Expect in Game 3
Both of these teams have a ton of experience. Tonight I expect a close, well-rounded approach from both sides.
For the Boston Bruins, yet again a goaltender hasn’t been announced. Based on how they’ve operated for the last few months, and through two games, I fully expect Jeremy Swayman to get the start tonight. That would be a great move considering he hasn’t lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in two years.
As for the aforementioned Toronto Maple Leafs, Ilya Samsonov is back between the pipes hot off a terrific performance in Game 2.
Stars, Stars, Stars
For both these teams it’s all about the stars. The Toronto Maple Leafs have depth, but even still, Matthews and Marner have to be the best players on the ice and take the game over.
There’s lots of chatter in Toronto about the lackluster start to the series by Mitch Marner. He’s one of the best wingers in the league and a regular-season game-breaker. It’s time for that to shift into the spring.
Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak need to do the same for Boston. There’s no John Tavares or Mitch Marner on the second or third lines for the Bruins. Pastrnak is going to have to deliver his best game of the series, or Saturday night Boston will be trying to even up the series.
