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After a third straight day of practice at the MasterCard Centre, the Toronto Maple Leafs departed on Wednesday afternoon for their first round series against the Boston Bruins, which begins Thursday night at TD Garden.
The club benefited from a refresher course on five-on-five and special teams tactics and will hope to put that to work in Game 1, but the unknown factor prior to the series is how head coach Mike Babcock will attempt to manipulate his roster to matchup against the Bruins; more specifically against their top line or David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
“They're elite players any way you look at it.… Babcock said on Wednesday. “Bergeron is real good in the faceoff circle, they all work real hard and compete real hard, Marchand and Bergeron are elite penalty killers so they know how to play the game without the puck and for the longest part of the year they hardly got scored on. They got scored on 5-on-5 a little bit here at the end, but they're just a good line, they possess the puck and they play in the O-zone.…
The question as the series opens is how does Babcock want to matchup against the Bruins top line. The Leafs will be at a disadvantage in Boston, as the home club has the last change, but in their last meeting in Toronto on February 24, they matched Patrick Marleau, Nazem Kadri and moved Leo Komarov up to counter the Bergeron line.
At the absolute least, the Leafs will hope to get their top pairing of Morgan Rielly and Ron Hainsey out against them, but the feeling going into Game 1 is that with Komarov on the fourth line with veteran Tomas Plekanec and rookie Kasperi Kapanen, Babcock can feel comfortable with any line out there and not be focused on playing the matchup game.
“You can trust (Plekanec) without the puck, you can trust him to play against good players. Leo, (Kapanen) and him, or Leo and [Johnsson] and him, I think, it gives me real good options there.… Babcock said. “I think he'll be important for us in this series. I think like all older guys, they get a little more juice at this time of year and we expect him to be good.…
Boston’s plan may be to get the defensively adept Bergeron and the annoying Marchand along with Zdeno Chara and rookie Charlie McAvoy lined up against Auston Matthews and William Nylander in an attempt to neutralize the Leafs top duo.
If Bergeron even partially successful in limiting Matthews and Nylander, it will put more pressure on the lines centered by Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak to produce at even strength or on the power play to produce (depending on how many penalties Boston takes).
If Matthews and Nylander can win the head-to-head battle with the Bruins duo, it will give the Leafs a significant advantage towards pulling the upset over the higher-seeded Beantowners.
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Wednesday first round series predictions
Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia - Penguins in 5
Flyers goaltending is a mess and Penguins only worry is if Matt Murray gets injured.
Winnipeg vs. Minnesota – Jets in 5
Jets have an overpowering offense and Connor Hellebuyck has been great this season. Wild hurt by injuries on D (Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon) and will have to rely on Devan Dubnyk to steal games.
Vegas vs. Los Angeles – Kings in 6
Golden Knights have had Cinderella season and Marc-Andre Fleury can steal a game, but they have to prove that they have another gear to beat the experienced Kings.
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Marlies goaltender Garret Sparks has won the “Baz… Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender this season. Sparks leads the AHL with a 1.81 GAA, .936 save percentage and has a 30-9-1-1 record in 42 games for the Marlies this season and has gone 19-3-2 since Dec. 31.
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