BOSTON – It all started a couple of days ago when Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said he was icing “his fastest team” for the start of the B’s first-round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. At that time it felt like some of the decisions the Bruins were making might be playing right into the very strengths of the Maple Leafs, and seemingly going away from the very things that have given them so much success against Toronto over the last few seasons.
Certainly it was just minor roster decisions in the grand scheme of things with rookie Karson Kuhlman dressing on the second line rather than 34-year-old power forward David Backes, but the tone it was setting was that the Bruins were allowing the Maple Leafs to dictate style and pace of play to them rather than the other way around.
So perhaps it was predictable what played out on Thursday night as the Black and Gold looked out-of-sync offensively and downright sloppy defensively in a 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in Game 1 at TD Garden.
“I think that’s the most physical we’ve seen that group this year. Their guys were stepping up on all of their lines, even their more skilled guys, in kind of putting bodies on us,” said Brandon Carlo, who struggled along with pretty much every member of the B’s defense corps in the first game of the series. “I don’t think we put it back in their faces as much. That’s a good learning experience in Game 1 to go with the rest of the series.
“Mistakes are going to happen when the pace turns up. I can tell you from being in my first game, it’s fast-paced. Mistakes are going to happen — we just have to do a better job suppressing it.”
The passes weren’t crisp, pretty much every player in the Bruins lineup except for Charlie Coyle was overpassing rather than shooting the puck, and the Bruins Perfection Line was held off the board aside from a power play goal in the first period.
But even worse was the supposed strength of this Bruins team over the Maple Leafs. The Bruins allowed breakaway after breakaway in the second period, and seemed to be way behind the speed and skill of a Maple Leafs team that seems to be getting its playoff legs. One constant for Toronto in Game 1 was Mitch Marner, who now has nine goals and 29 points in 20 career games against the Bruins, and is a nightmare of a matchup for defensive stopper Zdeno Chara because of his speed, shiftiness and elite offensive skill level.
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The Bruins tried to get a glove on him, but simply couldn’t as he scored the Leafs' first two goals while giving them all the offense they would need for Game 1.
“He’s an elite player in the league at a young age. He’s always played well against us, always played hard against us. Listen, years ago I remember [Wayne] Gretzky, ‘Why doesn’t anybody hit that guy?’ Well, it’s not that easy, right? So, I think it becomes containment issues, play him hard, play him honest one-on-one and put him where you want him to go,” said Cassidy. “Obviously, if you can be physical against him, do it, but he competed to score the first goal getting to the net. We were a little late in our coverage.
“I think we gifted him a little in the shorty, but good for him for being smart and jumping us. That’s on us, mishandled the puck. That shouldn’t beat us. We had plenty of time to get back in the game, but he’s a good player. He’s played well against us, and obviously we need to find an answer to him.”
Worst of all, the B’s didn’t play the physical game much at all, which was something that seemed to alternately frustrate and incapacitate the Leafs during last spring’s first-round series. The one time they did really show a physical spark was rookie D-man Connor Clifton burying William Nylander with a big hit against the side boards, and then drawing a penalty when a frustrated Nylander went after him with his high stick.
That led to the Bruins' only goal where they had the lead in the first period, and really the one highlight for a Boston team that wasn’t playing up to a playoff level of intensity or urgency. Credit John Tavares and his line for putting the clamps down on Boston’s Perfection Line and the B’s gifted trio really turning into a non-factor during 5-on-5 play in Game 1. It sure looked like the Bruins assumed — like most of the hockey media and the Bruins fan base — that a Boston series win was automatic over the Maple Leafs, and that all they had to do was show up.
“With some time off you get away from playing your style, you know, but I think maybe we thought it was going to be a little bit easier than it was out there,” admitted Brad Marchand. “We were trying to play too much of a controlled style, where that’s not really our game. So we’ve just got to play a little faster.”
So what can be done now?
Well, inserting Backes into the lineup for some attitude, some physicality and another experienced voice in the Bruins dressing room would certainly help, and that goes doubly when wondering what value a player like Joakim Nordstrom is bringing to the Bruins playoff lineup. But the bigger adjustment is a mindset for the Bruins. They need to stop sitting back and allowing the Maple Leafs to dictate style, pace of play and tone of the series, and instead force Toronto to play a punishing, challenging game that will knock them out of their comfort zone.
Can they do it?
They should be able to do that based on a season’s worth of evidence, but if they don’t for Saturday night’s Game 2 then this is a playoff series that could be over a lot quicker than anybody thought.
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