Series Talk: How do we beat Boston in round 1?

[DarkKnight]

Can win 4 of 7 if you don't score more goals then them.

I learn so much here.

 

[8816 others]

I learn so much here.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

 

[Joey Hoser]

Same as last year except Gardiner and Andersen don't blow it in game 7 this time. But with Tavares and Muzzin, Rielly on another level...

Leafs fans shouldn't be as afraid of Boston as they are.

 

[realgoodleafs]

Matthews and Nylander need to stop being afraid of body contact. Andersen needs to stop letting in soft goals. Gardiner needs to not have a meltdown.

 

[Macallan18]

Give our best players lots of minutes. Play our mediocre players less instead of more.
Don’t get wrapped up one line matchups if that defeats the foregoing.
Play Gardiner on the right side with Rielly against Bergeron, our guys will dominate.
Play Dermott on the right side with Muzzin, wearing a blindfold Dermott would still be better than Hainsey or Zaitzev as a RD.
Play Hainsey and Zaitzev as little as possible.
Stack our forward lines, and put Marleau and Brown on the fourth line.
Re-unite Matthews and Nylander.
For gods sake Babs give Freddy some rest before the playoffs.

 

[Gabriel426]

How to beat the Bruins, I guess the Leafs just need to score at least one more goal than them in each game.

 

[ottomaddox]

OK we know our team now. It is set. Probability of facing Boston in round 1 is around 95.3% as per Sports Club Stats. So folks brace yourselves Leafs v Bruins III.

What is our optimal lineup for game 1?

How do we beat the Boston fore check and cycle game?

Were you not around for trade deadline day? Dubas does not expect TOR to make it out of the 1st round.

 

[member 262271]

Sidney Crosby's music hits and he runs in and brains Bergeron with a chair. BAH GAWD

 

[Rob Brown]

We're playing boston in the first round? I didn't know we clinched a playoff spot already, or that the bruins did too, or that we're matched up against them.

Come on.

boston lives in some of your heads rent free.

Agreed, Boston had like a 93% chance to win the division in the last 1-2 weeks of the season last year and ended up coming 2nd. It's not over yet.

 

[FlareKnight]

I say showing up to start the series is a good move. Let's not get blown out and put ourselves in a very bad spot early in the series.

The obvious is what it is. Our depth needs to come through. There is no good reason our lines can't feast on the second-fourth lines of Boston. Our path to victory is through that advantage. Their top line is monstrous. But frankly ours should be too. Tavares, Hyman and Marner need to do as much against Bergeron's line as possible. But a lot will come down to Matthews. Our best players need to come through.

 

[Suntouchable13]

First, we have to have home ice. Second, Matthews and Willy have to produce more. Willy is already close to 7M cap hit, Matthews will have a 11.6M cap hit next season, time to play like big time players in the playoffs. They can not have 2 playoffs off in a row. No more free passes. Produce.

 

[DarkKnight]

I'm not afraid of Boston, but I respect them.

 

[Notsince67]

OK we know our team now. It is set. Probability of facing Boston in round 1 is around 95.3% as per Sports Club Stats. So folks brace yourselves Leafs v Bruins III.

What is our optimal lineup for game 1?

How do we beat the Boston fore check and cycle game?

1. Match Tavares line against Bergeron's. (Rielly too please)
2. Let Zaitsev sit this one out.
3. Don't play Sparks
4. Pay off the officiating to call an honest game.
6. Willy & Johnsson with AM
7. Hyman & Kappy with Kadri.
8. Ennis on Tavares line
9. 4th line with the plugs limited to 7 minutes a game + 2 minutes for every goal they score.
10. Marner , Kadri, Dermott, marleau, Gardiner on PP2. With any kind of pressure, we only need to worry about Chara and McAvoy. If they are matched against the 1st unit, there should be enough space for the second.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Play the full 60 and neutralize their top line.

 

[KE19]

The only way we beat Boston is by out-skilling them.

Can't afford to have Matthews and Nylander disappear for the entire series like last time out. Tavares should also help in that regard.

 

[Polaris1010]

It is the match ups.

There is only one key match up, and that is the defensive pair of Zaitsev - Muzzin against the Bergeron line.

This alone could win the series. They won't skate circles around Hainsey like they do every game that top line.

The forwards must come through by scoring and by being physical.

If they can do that, the Leafs will win, regardless of who has home ice.

That St. Louis game a week or so ago, where the Leafs getting manhandled like it was Boston in games 1 & 2 last year. They were able to make adjustments in the intermission and it was a totally different team and a totally different game. Something the Leafs could not do under pressure last season.

 

[Alerion]

Get Hainsey off the top pairing and hope Andersen has a better series. Speaking of which, we should be resting Andersen down the stretch so we don't repeat last year.

 

[cipher]

Sucks that we'll most likely be playing a Top5 team in the first round again.

If we win, our reward is we get to play the best team in the NHL in the second round. The same crap happened last year when 4 (Boston) played 6 (Leafs) in the first round and then it was 3 (Tampa) vs 4 (Boston) in the second round. Basically, two of the top 6 teams were gone after the first two rounds.

This format issue needs to be fixed during the next expansion or CBA talks.

 

[willmma]

Show up, game 1 on time.

 

[Stephen]

Our best players just have to be the best players on the ice and everything else that has to follow has to follow. The little roster tweaks here or there don't matter. Pastrnak's gap tooth doesn't matter. Tuukka Rask doesn't matter. Bergeron doesn't matter. Marchand sure as hell doesn't matter. Chara doesn't matter. Go over him, walk around him, go through him. Who cares.

 

[eddieO]

Love the comments like, "we played horrible last year and still nearly won." Well, um, maybe they played horrible because Boston made that happen? Boston got a lot of our players shook. It reminded me of the early 2000s Senators and our very own Leafs playing the Boston role.

You could literally say the same thing about those Sens teams... they played horrible and still nearly won. The reason they did? Because we destroyed them in intensity.

 

[1specter]

How someone can be so ignorant of reality is mind numbing. The guy is having one of the best defensive seasons for a Leaf defender in team history and he is somehow dead weight. I guess since he does not score a boat load he sucks... probably should forget that he is the guy we rely on to play all those crappy minutes on the PK and the guy who gets all those crappy DZ starts.

Never said he sucks, he's just not cut out for top competition, sorry

 

[BertCorbeau]

The Leafs can beat Boston but the B's seem to be in their head .. I'm nervous that this is akin to the Sens not being able to beat the Leafs from the late 90's/early 00's.

 

[hockeynorth]

Score more goals then them?

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Too many people on here still saying they're not afraid of facing Boston. All I can say is that if those same people actually watched some of their games, they would be. They're built for playoff hockey and are playing exceptionally well right now as a cohesive unit. Leafs still have a ton more work to do by mid-April if we hope to get past them this year.