All things are possible in sports. Teams that are not the best can win a series or even a championship if fate is on their side, but more often than not, the better and more complete teams are victorious.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the best teams in the NHL, with talented scorers in Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Auston Matthews, and legitimate Norris and Vezina Trophy candidates in Morgan Rielly and Frederik Andersen, but as the 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday clearly emphasized, the club as currently constructed has fatal flaws that may prevent them from getting by their archrival if they meet again in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Zaitsev gives up the puck to Kuraly who finds Pastrnak. Bruins scores in the dying seconds of the 2nd. 3-2. pic.twitter.com/DdaTr84kHr
The Leafs had the better opportunities and outshot the Bruins 15-9 in the first, but the strong goaltending of Tuukka Rask kept the game scoreless until Sean Kuraly set up David Krejci for his ninth of the season late in the opening period.
Toronto broke through in the middle frame, as Andreas Johnsson tied the game on a shot that pinballed off a defender through Rask’s pads and Mitch Marner scored his 17th of the season on a short side blast on the power play, but the game swung back in Boston’s direction as they converted on defensive zone turnovers by Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev with Kuraly tying the game and David Pastrnak tallying the game-winner with 15 seconds left.
“We made a couple of mistakes in D-zone, but I liked our game, to be honest with you. I thought we had a good opportunity (to win).” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “I thought we had a couple of mistakes there where we ended up with guys below the goal line for no reason, one right at the end of the period, which ended up costing us obviously, and another execution one. You have to clean that up.”
Unlike their loss in Boston last month, the outcome of the game was not about the Bruins physical play or being unable to stop the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line, it was more about them getting contributions throughout their lineup (a three-point night from bottom six forward Kuraly) and taking advantage of Toronto’s Achilles heel on the blueline.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy had the luxury of rolling four lines during the game (the lowest TOI was David Backes at 10:39 and Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson at 11:51 and every other forward had 12 minutes or more) and the depth line of Kuraly, Chris Wagner and Noel Acciari provided a matchup problem for the Leafs most of the night.
Babcock on the other hand managed the ice time of his fourth line of Par Lindholm (7:46), Frederik Gauthier (8:04) and Connor Brown (9:38) and that unit was barely noticeable throughout the game. The third line of Patrick Marleau, Nazem Kadri and William Nylander were perhaps the Leafs best offensive line in the first period, but their play declined in the second, making critical positioning errors on Boston’s two goals.
The Leafs blueline was noticeable for all the wrong reasons. Gardiner followed up a classic Gardinerian giveaway on Brian Boyle’s goal in New Jersey with a pair of miscues. He was in part responsible for Krejci’s opening goal, allowing Chris Wagner access to the front of the net to screen goalie Michael Hutchinson, and fanned on a pass behind the net that led to Kuraly’s tying goal.
Zaitsev was -3 and given credit for three giveaways in just over 20 minutes of ice time, but his nonchalant rimming the puck around the boards late in the second led to Pastrnak’s deciding goal.
The Leafs are undoubtedly going to make some changes to their roster before February 25th. Upgrading the fourth line may be something that can be accomplished internally with the return of the injured Tyler Ennis or promotion of Trevor Moore, Mason Marchment, Jeremy Bracco or Carl Grundstrom, but if we use the last few years as an indicator, Babcock will continue to hint at acquiring “heavier” veteran players before the deadline.
The area that continues to be in desperate need of addressing is defense. One encouraging sign was Travis Dermott seeing almost 21 minutes on Saturday, (including some shifts replacing Ron Hainsey on the top pairing with Rielly in the third period). A larger role for Dermott in the second half may help improve the Leafs blueline, but the acquisition of a top-pairing or top-four defender is the only way upgrade them and give them a fighting chance to have success in the postseason.
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The Leafs made another move to lock up a young player with potential, signing winger Trevor Moore to a two-year, $1.55 Million contract extension ($775,000 AAV).
The 23-year-old Thousand Oaks, California native leads the Toronto Marlies with 19 goals and had three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in a recent six-game stint with the Leafs. Moore caught the eye of the Leafs coaching staff in training camp and followed up an impressive showing during the Marlies Calder Cup run with a start that earned him an AHL All-Star selection.
GM Kyle Dubas once again has made proactive move to sign a player that will likely be on their NHL roster either later this season on next year on a cost-effective contract (as he did with defenseman Calle Rosen last month), something that will be needed with the big contracts of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews on the horizon.
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Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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