3 reasons the Boston Bruins will keep their momentum going against the Maple Leafs
The Boston Bruins crushed the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 1 of the 2024 NHL Playoffs, and this team can easily keep its momentum going against their rivals.
Wow, have we grown accustomed to seeing the Boston Bruins get the best of the Toronto Maple Leafs often this season, or what? The Bruins are now 5-0-0 against their division rival, and even with higher stakes involved, it seems as though the Leafs now have it in their minds that they aren’t winning this series if Boston’s 5-1 win on Saturday is an indicator.
While the Bruins must not get too comfortable despite their dominance this season, there are plenty of reasons to believe they will keep their momentum going in this series. So, if you’re an optimistic fan, feel free to expect your team to win and to win big in the foreseeable future.
But if you believe the Bruins could be due for a loss against the Leafs or even a string of bad games, let’s discuss why it’s okay to think your team will keep its momentum heading into Game 2 and beyond.
Boston still has the Leafs number
On Saturday, I outlined three reasons the Bruins would beat the Maple Leafs, and I also discussed how well they played Toronto. Last night’s Game 1 win was almost the same thing we had grown accustomed to seeing, and it indicates that just because we’re in “playoff hockey” mode from now until perhaps June, the Bruins faced the “same old Maple Leafs.”
We already know how well Boston outplayed Toronto during the regular season, but when you add last night’s numbers, the Bruins are now 5-0-0 against the Leafs, and they’re also outscoring them 20 to 8. That’s an average of 4.00 goals per game for the Bruins and just 1.60 for Toronto.
Toronto outshot Boston by a 1.56 to 1 margin, and it didn’t matter. At this point, it wouldn’t matter if the Leafs logged a Corsi For percentage of 70-plus and the Bruins were at 30-minus. If Boston keeps playing the Leafs in the same manner, and there is no reason to think otherwise, this series will be over fast.
The league’s second-highest scoring team can’t figure out Jeremy Swayman
While it would make sense to continue the timeshare that we have seen from goaltenders Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, why would the Bruins even consider it at this point? During the regular season, Toronto faced Ullmark just once, and they scored three times on him, albeit on 40 shots on net.
As for Swayman, not only did he stifle the Leafs with 35 saves on 36 shot attempts, good for a 0.972 save percentage, he’s been handling Toronto all season. In the four matchups the Leafs and Bruins faced one another, Swayman saw 97 shots on net, but he gave up just four goals in the process, good for an outrageous 0.958 save percentage.
Divide 97 by three, and Swayman faced an average of 32.3 shots on goal per game, yet the high capacity never fazed him. It’s been four games when you count last night’s win over Toronto, and the Leafs still can’t figure out Swayman.
Right now, there is no reason the Bruins top netminder shouldn’t line up between the pipes for Game 2. If and when that’s the case, it’s not farfetched to expect yet another strong outing from one of the NHL’s best against Auston Matthews and company.
Toronto’s issues have continued into the playoffs
Toronto’s defense and goaltending, although they seemed to get better when Ilya Samsonov returned, has been this team’s weakness overall, and it showed up once again against Boston. The Bruins only logged 23 shots on net against Samsonov, yet they scored on him four times, leaving the much-maligned goaltender with 19 saves and a save percentage of 0.826.
The Maple Leafs didn’t match the Bruins in physicality, but they also weren’t pushovers. However, it was nowhere near enough to make Boston think twice when the Bruins entered the Leafs zone, and it resulted in a blowout win for Boston.
Boston spent all of 2023-24 routinely beating the Leafs, and if the latter doesn’t resolve its issues in the defensive zone, this could make for an easy series win for the Bruins. Yes, Jim Montgomery and company need to make sure Toronto doesn’t adjust in Game 2, but at this point, you’d think a playoff team like the Leafs would have solved their issues by now.
They haven’t, and if the old phrase “keep doing what you’re doing” fits any narrative, it more than fits the Bruins. If they play their next few games the same way they did on Saturday and adjust to the Leafs as needed, there will be a lot of happy hockey fans in New England and throughout the Bruins fan base.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference and ESPN.com)