Boston Bruins: What does John Tavares absence mean for them

The Boston Bruins begin home-and-home series versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maybe it´s still early on in the season, but any give Maple Leafs vs. Bruins game is a highly anticipated one at this moment.

Despite the prestigiousness, the Boston Bruins will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs without Toronto’s biggest star, their captain. Accidentally, the Bruins´ top-line center´s presence is not guaranteed either. John Tavares will miss both games versus the Bruins with a broken finger.

What does John Tavares’s absence mean for the Boston Bruins? Two playoff victories in a row were not suitable enough for the Bruins against the Maple Leafs. After going 1-8 in their last nine head-to-head regular-season meetings with Toronto before the last season, the Bruins had something to prove. During the past campaign, the Bruins finally “beat” the Leafs in the regular-season series as well.

In the playoffs, the matchup of John Tavares versus Patrice Bergeron was crucial. Bergeron´s line was, perhaps, the only reason which carried the Bruins through the playoff win in 2018. Last spring, Toronto came up reinforced with the acquisition of John Tavares. In the regular season, the Bruins couldn’t get a real sense of how will both Tavares and Bergeron line-up against each other.

Bergeron missed two of four meetings with Toronto. In their first-ever head-to-head clash in the current uniforms, it was Bergeron collecting three points and the Bruins winning 5-1 at TD Garden. When they met at last in January at Scotiabank Arena, neither of the centers recorded a point.

In the playoffs, both centers were playing a perfect chess match. Neither of them has blinked. Bergeron ended up the series with, rather miserable, two power-play tallies and one empty-net goal, which beat the clock in Game 7.

John Tavares scored his lone from-the-play goal of the series in the aforementioned Game 7. His first one came as an empty-netter in Game 1. The fact that both players held each other to only one overall even-strength goal in seven playoff games is mind-blowing. In their last eight head-to-head tilts, playoffs included, Tavares and Bergeron combined for only four even-strength points while facing each other.

During last season´s playoffs, Tavares skated in 120 minutes at even-strength against the Bruins, with CF% at 46.18 and xGF% at 39.76. Those stats might indicate how exceptional job has Patrice Bergeron done facing Tavares constantly in that playoff series. However, both players were dreadful offensively.

It even forced Bruce Cassidy to take David Pastrnak off the top line to play with David Krejci. The first game Pastrnak didn’t have to face Tavares he scored two goals in Game 4.

Without Tavares, this will be the Maple Leafs´ lineup the Bruins get to face on Saturday night.

Maybe they will have to do so without Bergeron, who is a game-time decision with a lower-body injury. For now, the Tavares-Bergeron chess match won’t resume. Nevertheless, the arrival of Tavares changed the Maple Leafs´ perception of defending the Bruins´ top line drastically.

Ultimately, what does it mean for Boston? The absence of Tavares liberates the hands of the Bruins´ top unit, which has been red-hot lately. Advantage Bruins.