Toronto Maple Leafs right winger Mitch Marner celebrates after scoring on a penalty shot against Bruins goaltender Tuuka Rask during Game 1 of their first-round playoff series in Boston on April 11, 2019.Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
One year ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a seven-game NHL playoff series to the Boston Bruins in the first round because they did not have an answer to the Bruins’ first line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.
Now they might, at least so far in the first-round series, with a solid team effort in a 4-1 win in the opener at TD Garden.
It started with the line of John Tavares, who was playing in his first postseason game as a Maple Leaf, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman. Tavares, playing mostly against the Bergeron line, won 10 of 16 faceoffs and led the Leafs with six shots, including an empty-net goal near the end. Then there was the defence pair of Jake Muzzin, another new addition, playing with Nikita Zaitsev. They joined the Tavares line in an effective effort to shut down Bergeron and company.
But most of all there were Marner and goaltender Frederik Andersen, the subject of so much angst thanks to his struggles in March. Marner was at the apex of the speed the Leafs used against the Bruins, forcing them to chase the game. He finished with two goals, one on a shorthanded penalty shot.
Andersen played like the Andersen of November, the one who was in the conversation about the top award for NHL goaltenders, the Vézina Trophy. He stopped 37 shots and continually frustrated the Bruins, who had the Leafs on the ropes in the second period before a couple of breaks went the visitors’ way.
“I think we’re one of the fastest teams in the league,” said Leafs centre Nazem Kadri, who made a perfect long saucer pass to set up a big second-period goal by William Nylander. “That’s going to be a problem for other teams to defend and that’s something that we’ve got to take advantage of every single game. That speed. We’ve got to get on top of their players, I think that’s what forces mistakes and allows us to play with the puck more.”
The win also shook a big monkey off the Leafs’ backs. They blew two third-period leads here in losing two seventh and deciding games of playoff series, one by this group last year and one in 2013 that still haunts the franchise even though Kadri and defenceman Jake Gardiner are the only two players left from that team.
Marner said the win will boost the Leafs’ confidence. “That’s a great win for us. We played well as a team, but we’re going to need to keep going here throughout the series. The games are just going to get harder and harder. As a team, we’ve got to make sure we come to play every night.”
It was a nervous ride, especially in the last three minutes of the third period, but the Leafs’ showed they can silence the TD Garden and play with the lead. It was the first time the Leafs have won the opening game of a playoff series since 2003 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Marner’s two goals gave him nine goals and 29 points in 20 career games (both regular season and playoffs) against the Bruins. He can now be considered a Bruins killer in the same way Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak are labelled Leafs killers.
“We know we’re a fast team and I think when we play right it’s hard to stop us,” Marner said. “We just wanted to make sure we were getting pucks in for the first 10 minutes and make it hard on their [defence]. I think we did a great job of that.
“I thought all four lines played very well tonight with our D-corps. Freddie [Andersen], again, he was unbelievable.”
The Leafs played a textbook road game in the first period, not taking many chances and being defensively responsible, but then saw the Bruins get them on the run in the second. However, by capitalizing on a few breaks and with Andersen playing with confidence, the Leafs pulled a rabbit out of their hat.
Nylander, for example, made amends for taking a bad penalty in the first period that resulted in a goal by Bergeron with a timely goal in the second that put the Leafs up by two. Before that, Marner scored his second goal of the game on a penalty shot that actually came during a Leafs penalty, so it stood up as a shorthanded goal.
To their credit, the Leafs kept skating after Bergeron gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead and they bounced back with Marner’s first goal. Defenceman Jake Muzzin bounced a shot off a couple of bodies and then the post. The rebound went to Marner, who slapped it past Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask at 16:44.
But the Leafs were on the defensive in the first half of the second period and only some puck luck saved them. Marner wound up with a shorthanded breakaway early in the period and then he was brought down from behind by Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk. He was awarded a penalty shot, went in juking with the puck all the way and beat Rask to give the Leafs the lead.
Nylander’s goal was a classic Leafs play as Kadri spotted him charging up the left side and fired a perfect saucer pass from deep in the Leafs zone to the tape of his stick. Nylander went in and beat Rask with a wrist shot at 18:25.
Kadri said it did occur to him it was a risky pass to make in a playoff game with the Leafs hanging on to a one-goal lead. But the thought was fleeting.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “It’s a rink-wide pass in front of two guys. I just have the confidence. I believe I’m capable of making those plays.
“On the ice when you look at it in slo-mo and on instant replay you kind of over-analyze it a bit. But in the time I saw him open so I gave it to him.”