After crushing the Maple Leafs 5-1 in Game 1, the Bruins look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead when they host Game 2 at TD Garden on Monday (7 p.m. puck drop).
Skate Pod: Goalie rotation talk is tearing us apart!
Here are five thoughts heading into the game:
1. There probably isn’t a ‘wrong’ answer in net… yet
If you’ve read my stuff or listened to me on The Skate Podcast or Sunday Skate, you know I’m pro-rotation. I would start Linus Ullmark in Game 2.
I think the rotation elevates both goalies, allows them to stay fresh, and brings out the best in them. I think that would remain true in the playoffs. I also think it’s what they’re used to, as neither goalie has started consecutive games in two months.
That said, Jeremy Swayman was terrific in Game 1. He has been terrific against the Leafs all season, as he is now 4-0-0 with a .962 save percentage against them this season. Am I going to sit here and say that it would be a mistake to stick with him for Game 2? No, I’m not.
There is a lot of logic in either decision, if we’re being completely honest. On one hand, there’s the rotation that has done wonders for the Bruins for two years. On the other, there’s the more conventional path of riding the hot hand and forcing the Leafs to show they can beat Swayman.
“We’re still contemplating what’s the right way to go,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said Sunday – maybe truthfully, maybe not.
The bigger debates, discussions and disagreements come when either path shows the first signs of cracking. If you choose the rotation, how long do you stick with it if one of the goalies falters? If you ride Swayman, how long do you stick with him if he has an off night?
2. What adjustments will the Maple Leafs make?
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe can’t go into Game 2 with the same game plan as Game 1. Whether it’s different line combinations, a substitution or two on defense, a goalie change, or a different message that could rein in some of his team’s “careless” penalties, he has to do something after a pretty embarrassing 5-1 loss.
The big change he would love to be able to make is putting William Nylander back in his lineup. The Leafs’ second-leading scorer missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury, but was spotted on the ice at Warrior Ice Arena on Sunday. Keefe has made it clear that he is not and will not be providing any injury updates, so we’ll all find out if Nylander is playing when the Leafs hit the ice for warmups Monday night.
Even if Nylander remains out, Keefe may decide to change up his lines. He would like to get Auston Matthews away from the Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo pairing, but that won’t be easy to do on the road when the Bruins have last change. Another option would be to move Mitch Marner (who had a quiet Game 1 himself) back to Matthews’ line and hope that loading up gets both of them going.
On defense, Keefe has a couple veteran gamers just sitting around in T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano. Could he take out a bruiser like Ilya Lyubushkin or Joel Edmundson and put one of them in? Edmundson was at fault on the Bruins’ first goal. His third-pairing partner, Timothy Liljegren, had a rough night as well – literally at times, like when Pat Maroon launched him into the Boston bench.
The Leafs also have a goaltending dilemma of their own, although theirs doesn’t come with nearly as many positive vibes as the Bruins’. Ilya Samsonov didn’t give up any truly soft goals in Game 1, but he still gave up four on 23 shots, which just isn’t good enough. Given how rough of a season he had overall, you have to wonder just how long Samsonov’s leash is before the Leafs would turn to Joe Woll. Like Montgomery, Keefe isn’t tipping his hand.
Montgomery is preparing for anything, saying that he spent a decent chunk of his Sunday going over potential adjustments the Leafs could make.
“Probably 25 to 40 percent is focusing on what adjustments they might do to what we did well, and what adjustments we have to do to what they did well to us,” Montgomery said.
3. The Bruins still see room to improve
It’s hard to find much to complain about after a 5-1 win, but Montgomery did identify a couple areas where the Bruins can and probably need to be better. Chief among them was 5-on-5 offense.
“We need to spend more time in the O-zone,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t do a good job offensively [Saturday] 5-on-5.”
Montgomery also didn’t like the way the Bruins sat back in the third period, both before and after the Leafs cut Boston’s lead to 4-1.
“I didn’t particularly like our third, especially offensively,” Montgomery said.
An example of what Montgomery wants to see more of was the knockout blow of a shift that his third line had in the third period. Morgan Geekie threw a huge hit on the forecheck that helped set up him and linemates Jakub Lauko and Trent Frederic for over a minute of offensive-zone time. The shift ended with Lauko drawing a penalty that essentially killed Toronto’s short-lived momentum.
“Right after it went 4-1, they came out two shifts later and had a great shift in the O-zone, probably our best offensive-zone shift of the game, and drew a penalty,” Montgomery said. “So, that kind of really turned the tide back in our favor.”
4. Keeping up the physicality is crucial
That third line brought the physicality all night, as the three of them combined for 13 hits. So did the fourth line, especially Pat Maroon (team-high six hits). Jake DeBrusk landed five hits. Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak each had four.
Related
The Bruins were officially credited with 50 hits total as a team, their second-most in any game this season. The only time they had more was March 26 in Florida, when they had 51.
Montgomery had stressed the importance of physicality going into the series, identifying it as an area he didn’t prioritize enough at this time last year.
Why is physicality so important in the playoffs? Sure, it fires up the crowd. And yes, a good check can separate a player from the puck. But in a best-of-seven series, it can also wear down your opponent as the series goes on. The challenge for the Bruins is to keep up the physicality and not get worn down themselves.
“It’s really important,” Montgomery said. “I think you’ve got to wear teams down. That’s how you wear them down. I thought the second period, the last 15 minutes after we killed that 4-on-3, I thought that was the best segment of the way we want to play. You could see players on the opposition being tired.”
5. ‘Different look’ power play gives the Bruins a potentially decisive special teams edge
For the first time in seemingly forever, David Pastrnak is on a different power-play unit than Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand.
In the regular-season finale against Ottawa, it was Pastrnak’s new unit with Kevin Shattenkirk, Pavel Zacha, Danton Heinen and James van Riemsdyk (who has since been replaced by Maroon) that got going, scoring a goal and consistently moving the puck well to generate chances.
In Game 1 against Toronto, it was McAvoy and Marchand’s new unit with Geekie, Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk that scored twice.
In the course of a week, the Bruins have gone from not having any power-play units that could score to having two that are looking pretty good right now.
McAvoy believes the “different look” may have been just what the doctor ordered.
“Sometimes just a different look and just being more direct and simple,” McAvoy said when asked about the success of the new units. “This time of year, you need everybody to step up, so two units and everybody pulling the rope and everybody rooting for each other. We need our power play to be clicking.”
Meanwhile, the Bruins’ penalty kill held the Leafs’ power play to an 0-for-3 showing with four shots on goal. The Leafs had their own late-season struggles on the man advantage, and they have not yet found a solution. They also have to face one of the league’s best PKs, while the Bruins get to go up against a Toronto PK that has struggled all season.
Going into the series, we wondered if either team’s power play would get going. If the Bruins’ continues to roll and the Leafs’ continues to struggle, this could end up being a shorter series than most anticipated.