FINAL SCORE: Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 1
IN BRIEF: Mitch Marner and the Maple Leafs' speed gave the Bruins fits in Game 1 Thursday night, as Toronto took away Boston's home ice advantage with a 4-1 win.
BRUINS-MAPLE LEAFS SERIES: Toronto leads 1-0
FROM JOE HAGGERTY
There were all kinds of breakaways and odd-man rushes being allowed by the Bruins through the first couple of periods. The B’s looked sloppy, they looked unprepared to deal with Toronto’s speed and Tuukka Rask wasn’t able to step up and make the saves when he really needed them to at the big moments. It was odd to watch it all happening given how strong the Bruins have been when it comes to the defensive end of things, and how well they’ve bottled up the Maple Leafs attack in the past. But it was also clear that the B’s were having trouble matching Toronto’s speed and that they really weren’t at a playoff level at either end of the ice. Too many careless mistakes defensively and way too cute offensively for most of the night where it looked like the B’s simply expected to win without playoff effort.
Nine goals and 29 points in 20 career games vs. the Bruins for Leafs winger Mitch Marner, who is certainly entering Bruins Killer territory with the way he plays against them in the postseason after his two goals in Game 1. Marner tipped a point shot off the post, and then somehow got to the other side of the net to bury the loose puck. He is by far the biggest danger that the B’s have to deal with in this series. The real backbreaker was the penalty shot in the second period where he completely faked out Tuukka Rask after using his speed on a shorthanded breakaway to draw the shootout chance. That was the go-ahead goal for the Leafs in the second period.
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It’s now 17 goals and 51 points for Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand in their last 12 games vs. the Leafs after the PP strike by No. 37 in the first period. That is flat-out domination over a long period of time, but they weren’t nearly as dominant 5-on-5 against the Leafs as they’ve been in the past aside from the Bergeron PP goal. In fact Marchand didn’t have a single shot on net through the first two periods of play, and seemed to be guilty of over-passing like many players on the B’s roster throughout the game. The Bruins were guilty of a real lack of assertiveness in a lot of areas and one of them was No. 63 looking for his own offense.
It looks like Bruins left winger Jake DeBrusk got banged up while chasing and then tripping Mitch Marner into the end boards in the second period on a shorthanded rush that led to a penalty shot goal for the Maple Leafs. DeBrusk crashed into the boards afterward, missed a few shifts and then looked a bit hunched over with pain when he did come back into the lineup. He finished with 15:14 of ice time and ended up taking regular shifts in the third period after making it back from the initial injury, but that will be something to watch as the series unfolds.
The Bruins were outhit by the Maple Leafs (32-to-30) and blocked fewer shots (14-to-11) than Toronto over the course of Game 1, and just didn’t look like they were ready to give a full energy effort in a postseason game. Those stats aren’t the end all, be all obviously, but they were just another piece of evidence that the B’s didn’t come ready to outwork the Maple Leafs in a game where they eventually fell by a 4-1 score when it was all over. It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments the B’s make headed into Game 2, but it’s clear they need to do a lot of things differently, and better, if they’re going to win the series.
HIGHLIGHTS
BERGERON SCORES ON THE POWER PLAY TO GIVE B'S A 1-0 LEAD
MARNER TIES IT FOR THE LEAFS
MARNER SCORES HIS SECOND ON A PENALTY
LEAFS ADD TO THEIR LEAD
UP NEXT
vs Maple Leafs, Saturday, 8 p.m. (NBC)
@ Maple Leafs, Monday, 7 p.m. (NBCS)
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