This is a good watch for a bit of a refresher on how we matched up against the Blue Jackets in the regular season. Obviously those games were early in the season (October 4th and October 21st) and well before the Columbus Blue Jackets had completely tuned into the details of Tortorella's structure, and also well before the Toronto Maple Leafs even had their new head coach, Sheldon Keefe, behind the bench (who as well all know, changed a lot about the team's play).
It was a 4-1 win in our second game of the season, and a 4-3 OT loss in the tenth game of the season. These are a few things from the highlights of those two games that stood out to me:
- Top-end skill absolutely has the potential to turn the tide of the series. The highlights from the first game really exemplify this, specifically Marner's second goal, where he dances Werenski and weaves into the slot, and Matthews' 4-1 goal, where he absolutely snipes it. The creativity and skill we have cannot be stopped by any structure if our guys are dialed in and ready to go. In that first game, the Blue Jackets largely outplayed the Leafs at 5v5, but our top guys took over the game regardless.
- The powerplay will be very important in this series. The Maple Leafs were able to get the puck moving quickly, and utilize the middle of the ice and bumper position to score twice on the PP in the 4-1 victory. For this reason, I'd prefer to see Rielly getting the spot on PP1...less useless shots from the point into shin pads, a better transition option, and more willing to quickly throw the puck over to Marner & Matthews on the flanks.
- Speed is a huge advantage for us. In the second game, Kapanen draws a penalty with his speed, getting a slower guy like Jenner clutching and reaching through the neutral zone. Playing against the 1-2-2 with tons of speed, and not allowing them to get settled into their structure and slow down the game and clog it up could be huge. That's why we need a ton of attention to detail on the breakouts, and creative passing routes through the neutral zone.
- The bane of the Maple Leafs' in these games is their own stupidity and lack of attention to detail in the d-zone. Sloppy turnovers (the biggest one being Marner's turnover on the PP leading to a short-handed goal against) are what the forechecking Blue Jackets prey on, and create most of their offense with. They aren't going to beat us with skill, speed, and creativity, but will play with focused aggression to force turnovers, and if the Leafs aren't careful, it will bite us. We can neutralize their offense by simply taking care of the puck. Under Keefe our defensive game hasn't been horrendous for 90% of the time, but every so often we have those games, or moments in the games, where we implode, and Andersen has not been good enough to bail us out this year.