Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews reacts after scoring against the Boston Bruins during the second period in Toronto, on April 16, 2018.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
After two games of getting run over by the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs took their fans for one of their familiar roller-coaster rides.
Mixing the running and gunning that was not seen in the first two games of this NHL playoff series with lots of close calls in their own end, the Leafs took a 4-2 decision Monday night. The wildly entertaining win gave them some breathing room in the series by cutting the Bruins’ lead to 2-1.
The difference, said Leafs winger Mitch Marner, who shut down the Bruins’ big line for the first time with Patrick Marleau and their new centre Tomas Plekanec, was “our speed. We used our speed more, we got the puck up quicker and got on the fore-check quicker.”
Not only did Marner and company blank the Bruins’ big line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on the scoresheet, they outscored them as well. Marleau scored twice on setups from Marner. The Bruins’ trio finished a collective minus-seven on the night, an astounding number considering it ran up 20 points in the first two games.
That vindicated a decision by Leafs head coach Mike Babcock to move centre Tomas Plekanec, a liability in the first two games, between Marner and Marleau and assign them to the Bergeron line.
The Leafs’ own big line checked in, capping its improving play throughout the night with Auston Matthews scoring what proved to be the winning goal late in the second period. It was a sizzling one-timer that came off a nifty feed from William Nylander, who responded to a Babcock challenge earlier in the day to show some determination with his best game of the series.
Matthews’ celebration of his first goal of the series made it obvious he saw the game as a statement from the Leafs’ young stars.
“Absolutely. I think everybody did,” Matthews said. “I don’t think any of us felt we played how we’re capable of so [Monday night] definitely was a statement game for us.”
Everyone on the team was better, even the defencemen, although there were still enough miscues from them and the forwards to keep everyone on the edge of their seats. The Bruins outshot the Leafs, 42-30, which is where goaltender Frederik Andersen comes in.
Andersen was also much better even if both Bruins goals, by defencemen Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara, should have been stopped. Andersen made up for it with some spectacular work when the Leafs were clinging to their lead in the third period, robbing Pastrnak twice. He got the Bruins winger with a glove save during a power play early in the third and then dove backwards late in the period to get the paddle of his stick on a shot that was headed to the open net.
“Yeah, I see it a lot,” Marner said of the paddle save. “He does it to me in practice quite a bit. The guy never gives up on the pucks. That’s what he’s done all year. He’s been a brick house for us, he’s been unbelievable. He’s been the reason we won a lot of games.”
The tension didn’t release until 16:25 of the third period when Marleau and Marner flew off on a two-on-one rush and Marleau scored his second goal to put the Leafs up by two.
It all started with Babcock giving his critics the bird in the morning.
Babcock is nothing if not stubborn. In the face of unanimous scorn from the fans and media toward Plekanec, who had yet to play well since being traded from the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 26, Babcock doubled down. He promoted Plekanec to second-line centre, Nazem Kadri’s job before he was suspended for three games due to a massive brain cramp.
This was unveiled at the game-day skate and after the game Babcock professed no surprise he made the right decision.
“I thought [Plekanec] was outstanding, really good for us,” the coach said. “He played his best game since he’s been here.
“Maybe just the fact he maybe didn’t feel as important as he should have when he got here affected his play, but I thought he was really good and a huge factor in our win.”
Plekanec agreed the additional responsibilities made a difference.
“Every player says that when you’re in the game more you feel much better about yourself, you’re more confident,” Plekanec said. “The key to that is at the beginning of the game we had a good couple shifts, it gets you going, and you can shake off that rust from previous games.”
When the puck dropped to start the game, the Leafs players came out with the determination that wasn’t there in the first two games. The 19,663 fans at the Air Canada Centre were a little hesitant to believe it. While they were enthusiastic, there was a pensive air, as if the fans could not quite believe the Leafs were finally competing for pucks and using their speed to their advantage.
The Matthews line kept the Bruins on the defensive in the early going and then hit its stride in the second period.
The Leafs defence, while improved, still had the habit of throwing pizzas across the middle of the defensive zone. There were at least three giveaways in the first period, two by the defence, and in the first two games the Bruins would surely have put those pucks in the net.
Another big difference from the first two games was the special-teams play. The Leafs managed to stay out of the penalty box in the first 40 minutes, which was enough to finally put a dent in the Boston power play. They also killed off the lone Bruins power play of the game early in the third period.
The Leafs scored a first-period power-play goal thanks to an iffy delay-of-game call on Bruins centre Riley Nash when he may or may not have sent the puck directly over the glass. James van Riemsdyk, another of the absent ones, scored one of his patented redirects in front of the net at 17:07.
Not only was it the first goal of the game, it was the first time the Leafs held a lead in the series and it was their second power-play goal in eight chances.
“It just comes down to those details, finding the right side of the puck, making smart decisions with the puck,” van Riemsdyk said in explaining what made the difference for the Leafs. “That’s when you get yourself into trouble, giving away the easier scoring chances against. It’s hard enough as it is to score so you want to make them earn all their chances as well so you’re not chasing the game. We got off to a good start and that was good for us.”