The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are going to a first-round game seven for the fourth time in eleven years. To quote Dan Hicks at the 2008 U.S. Open, expect anything different? These two teams are destined to play seven games, no matter how they get there, and even though the Leafs looked horrible in game four, I still had a funny feeling we would be watching hockey Saturday night.
If game five was a great example of how to play playoff hockey facing elimination without your best player, game six was the magnum opus. Toronto was never going to win this hockey game by scoring four or five goals. It didn’t look likely when they had Auston Matthews in the lineup, and it sure as hell wouldn’t happen without him. They were going to win by battling until they had nothing left, and that’s exactly what they did.
The Leafs came out firing, building on their game-five performance and again limited the Bruins to just a single shot after 20 minutes. Toronto was not generating many clear scoring chances, but its forecheck was ferocious, and Boston’s defensemen were in a blender. You could tell the Leafs sensed Boston’s nervousness and wanted to exacerbate it as much as possible.
Toronto was the better team to start period two as well, and Jake McCabe missed a yawning cage after a lovely setup from Max Domi just two minutes into the period. Not long after, Boston gained some footing in the hockey game, and Joe Woll made some big saves, including a ten-ball low blocker stop low blocker on Mason Lohrei, who walked straight down the slot. Then, disaster struck for the Leafs… a four-minute power play.
I was terrified of what happened next. I almost had to stop watching—four minutes of torture from the Blue and White that drove all of us insane. I’m not sure if they set up their power play one time over the double minor, and they certainly didn’t test Jeremy Swayman. It almost sent one of Toronto’s best crowds in recent history into comatose. I don’t know the solution to the catastrophe that is the Leafs’ power play (1/20 in six games). At this point, any power play goal is a bonus, but we cannot expect anything to change.
The worry was that Boston would capitalize on the momentum of a four-minute kill and come back with chances of their own. They did, and the Leafs bent, but they did not break. The amount of crucial blocks from Toronto last night was almost laughable. The team got in front of EVERYTHING, and Woll had no issues dealing with the few shots that did sneak through.
It wasn’t just a few guys blocking shots, either. It was everybody. Knies, Domi, McCabe, Edmundson, and Rielly were the most notable.
The game-breaking play came from one of the Leafs’ biggest game-breakers. William Nylander loves having the puck on his stick and scoring big goals. His first in-game six showed the confidence needed to perform in these games. Nylander seemingly didn’t have much going on, but he used his puck protection skills and moved his feet to create an opening for a shot. He could have easily chipped it into the corner, but he knew the best possible play was with the puck on his stick, not anyone else’s. It was a lucky bounce, but #88 made the play to get that lucky bounce, and in a game as tight as game six was, it was clear the opening goal was not going to be pretty.
The third period was all hands on deck, and man, it got chaotic.
This sequence in front of the Leafs’ net ended up with an incredible Woll stop as the goalie somehow managed to track the puck through it all.
This backcheck from Knies late in the third encapsulated the Buds’ effort as a whole last night. The team did not give up a single odd-man rush, and that’s because the forwards did a great job of staying puck side in transition and not chasing offence.
Whenever a Bruin player would skate through the neutral zone with the puck on a rush, two or three blue jerseys would surround him once he hit the Leaf blueline. It was a defensively responsible performance and the type you need to win a playoff game.
The eventual game-winning goal was a combo of grit, determination, and skill from three key Leafs. Rielly made a great block and chip up to Nylander, who willed the puck into the neutral zone himself, and from there, it was all skill. Incredible play from Knies to shield the puck and all in one motion, put it right on Nylander’s stick, who was never, ever going to miss. Tavares and Domi both had similar chances earlier in the third and missed, but this is why Willy is a different breed.
To have the stones to go backhand five-hole at that point in the game is mind-boggling. That kind of cockiness and talent cannot be taught, and it can never be taken away from him.
Marner played another fine game, but again, he was kept to the outside for the most part in the offensive zone. Matthews had his game in game two, and Nylander is all the talk right now after his performance last night. Maybe game seven will be the game Marner has his turn in the spotlight?
I really liked Keefe’s move to take Reaves out and put Noah Gregor in. He wasn’t remarkable, but his injection of speed adds a dynamic to an otherwise toothless bottom six. Although the entire bottom six did a great job of defending and forechecking, Calle Jarnkrok had some great shifts, and Boston got very few shots when he was on the ice with Connor Dewar and David Kampf.
Before we look at game seven, I’d like to address a few things.
The hit on Lohrei from Pontus Holmberg was definitely a penalty and a tough miscall by the referees. Do I really care? No. Fuck Boston. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it because it did result in a Leaf goal after an icing seconds later. Lohrei held Holmberg’s stick, but that doesn’t mean you can drill him into the boards. If anything, call both penalties and send them to the box.
Secondly, Charlie McAvoy is quickly becoming an enemy in Toronto. The hip-drop tackle, which potentially hurt Matthews in game three, and now a questionable hit on David Kampf in game six. At the least, it was on the edge, and a forearm/elbow to the head will not go unnoticed.
So, game seven it is. The Bruins are now 0-5 in their last five chances to eliminate the opposition, and if they lose game seven, they will be the first team in North American sports history to blow 3-1 years in consecutive seasons. This is a real thing. There is pressure on Boson that they have never felt before. Toronto is going into a winner-take-all for the first time in the Matthews era where they are not the team that is under complete duress.
There’s pressure on the Buds, no doubt, but it pales in comparison to Boston.
Sheldon Keefe asked his team before game five how they wanted to be remembered, and game seven is what people will remember, not the games that came before it. As Nylander pointed out, this group has not won a game seven and will likely have to do it without their best player. But, it feels like they’ve found a formula to beat this mediocre Boston team.
Expectations were so low after game four, and if they do manage to pull this off, I guarantee you the players on this team will be remembered fondly forever, no matter what happens in the rounds to come.
Game seven’s are fun, they’re magic, and it is about damn time the Toronto Maple Leafs won one. God would it be incredible if they did.
See you Saturday, Go Leafs Go.
The Morning Skate 