The Toronto Maple Leafs may have to deal with life without Nazem Kadri, but as of late Friday afternoon, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety has not determined the length of a suspension for his hit on Boston winger Tommy Wingels in the third period of the Leafs 5-1 loss to the Bruins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal at TD Garden on Thursday.
Kadri’s questionable decision was due to a lack of composure in the series opener, as the more experienced Bruins imposed their physical will throughout of the game.
Boston was able to neutralize Auston Matthews and William Nylander by matching the Patrice Bergeron line and/or the Zdeno Chara/Charlie McAvoy pairing against them and they also zeroed in on leading scorer Mitch Marner.
Marner absorbed numerous hits throughout the game and was sandwiched by Wingels and Chara just after Boston had extended their lead to 4-1 midway through the third.
“Initially, I just felt like (Wingels) made contact with (Mitch Marner’s) head to start and I didn’t see a call there.” Kadri said in defending the hit after the game. “I was committed to the hit and he ended up falling. It happened pretty quick.”
More importantly, the Bruins won the special teams battle by a wide margin, scoring three power play goals and shutting down the Toronto power play with effective penalty killing.
“If you played like we did last night, you deserve a little adversity and then how are we going to handle it? We're a better team than we played last night.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said at practice on Friday. “As much as we prepared and talked to it, they competed harder than we did and, in the end, if you don't compete harder than the other team, you can't win.”
Kadri did not take to the ice on Friday, as Babcock and the Leafs had to prepare for the likelihood of his absence from the lineup.
Veteran Patrick Marleau was shifted to the middle on the line with Marner and Zach Hyman. Veteran Leo Komarov skated with Matthews and Nylander and Andreas Johnsson took Komarov’s spot on the fourth line with Tomas Plekanec and Kasperi Kapanen.
“I don't know what (the league is) going to do, so we might as well get prepared. What we tried to do is give ourselves good balance.” Babcock said. “We thought Hyman played real well last night, we thought Hyman could help those two guys be a real good line. Leo has played in that spot. It looks to me like they're matching Bergeron against (Matthews and Nylander), so it gives him a good job and a net front presence.”
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