TSN: Surging Bruins raise serious questions for Maple Leafs

[patty59]

bruins didn't lose for ages and are still barely in front of Toronto, shows they are a good team.

defense and goaltending are hugely in our favor. If our middle six forwards **** the bed again and the top line can't score 155 pts like they did last year vs them we are cooked.

the leafs were a dozen points up on the Bruins at one point and now they're 4 back. That's a huge swing in this point system.

The Bruins have been missing at least one key player in almost every single game this season. That says a lot about this team, this is a resilient group and they have shown they can go all the way.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Don't like the narrative going into this series, would have much rathered the Leafs coming in very overconfident, still time for that to happen I suppose.

see, I feel opposite.

I'd always rather have my opponent be mentally fragile.

Get up on them early, or hit/forecheck them relentlessly early and they're likely to fold up

 

[ODAAT]

listening to Kypreos on HockeyCentral at Noon here now and he`s not holding back, said the Leafs haven`t a clue how to play when they aren`t scoring, don` t have that internal toughness to push through it and immediately brought up the Bruins and their streak and how many games recently the team was behind, clearly not playing their best but yet, don`t give up, dug deep and pulled out wins

 

[Number8]

You mean defensemen aren't allowed to continue skating directly into an oncoming player's path once he passes or dumps it in?

It's truly unbelievable, isn't it? Started it in Detroit, continues in Toronto. League is oblivious to it.

 

[DKH]

The pressure in Toronto to be the first team to win a playoff round since 1993 or whatever must weigh heavily on poor Leafs players

 

[mar2kbos]

Until Toronto invests in defense they are the equivalent of the Manning's Colts in the NFL

 

[BruinsBtn]

The Leafs were 10 points up on Boston on Dec 28 with the same number of games played.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

2014-2016 was dark times

But honestly 2017 do you not recall the injury list vs Ottawa? It was most of the D!

2018 still comes down to losing to a better team.

How much better we took game 1 in their building?

I'm very aware that Tommy Cross saw the ice in that series I was at all the home games. Shame we didn't have the guts to play Gryz. Its still a weak loss to the Sens with a no show from the top forwards and Rask just being OK.

This will be our 12th season since the organization got its act together and got good again. We've had 2 good postseason runs. We don't win games when we have series leads. Its insane last years series went 7. The response to going up 1-0 vs Tampa was bad.

Seriously though this team can't win an important playoff game to save its life if they are ahead in the series for whatever reason there is no close.

Only 1/3 of us Toronto and Tampa can live up to expectations with the playoff format. I wouldn't be writing them off we've lost to worse teams than them in the playoffs and needed 2 separate game 7 third period comebacks to beat them.

 

[ap3lovr]

Toronto vs Boston is a bad matchup for both teams imho. Their forwards score timely goals, and our forwards make backup goalies look like Hasek.

Looking forward to some good hockey. I just hope that if we lose that it is in 6 or 7. If we win that it is in 4 or 5.

 

[BruinDust]

The pressure in Toronto to be the first team to win a playoff round since 1993 or whatever must weigh heavily on poor Leafs players

I think pressure on the Leafs is a huge difference in this years match-up if it goes that way. Against the Caps two years ago, they were just happy to be back in the dance. Even against the Bruins last year, the expectation on the Leafs to have playoff success wasn't quite there.

But the honeymoon is over there. Media and fans are opening questioning Babcock's coaching and decision making. Meanwhile the Leafs have the line-up expected to be able to win a cup before the cap starts to chip away at their roster. They aren't coming into the series as some happy-go-lucky squad up against a heavily-favored Bruins team, they have just as much pressure on them as the Bruins will, likely more.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Toronto vs Boston is a bad matchup for both teams imho. Their forwards score timely goals, and our forwards make backup goalies look like Hasek.

Looking forward to some good hockey. I just hope that if we lose that it is in 6 or 7. If we win that it is in 4 or 5.

So you're saying Andersen would be injured and Garret f***ing Sparks would pull a Matt Murray?

No thanks. Hopefully we win

 

[HockeyMomx2]

If we hadn't been crippled by injuries all year we would be at a minimum 10 points up on TO and pretty close to " mighty " TB.

I firmly believe that also. While on the one hand it bums me out, on the other, I'm hoping the Hockey Gods see the teams season long list of injuries that they have fought through and come through and decide they've paid their dues and leave this team alone for the remainder of the season and playoffs. What is life if not to dream for the impossible? lol

 

[HockeyMomx2]

The pressure in Toronto to be the first team to win a playoff round since 1993 or whatever must weigh heavily on poor Leafs players

Oh I sure hope it does, extremely heavily.