Some injuries happened at the wrong time of the year, but overall it seems like the Leafs just weren’t ready to beat the Bruins yet. AndrewBerkshire analyzes what specifically went wrong for Toronto this time around.
However, similar problems that plagued the Leafs last year against the Bruins cropped up again this year. Kadri took himself out of the series entirely this time with a selfish play, and while Freddie Andersen was vastly better than last season, he struggled in Game 7.
Last season, the Bruins absolutely tore through the Leafs at evens, with Patrice Bergeron’s line specifically pounding them into the ground. That the 2018 series went seven games was probably pretty random considering the Leafs only mustered 45.
Last season the Leafs allowed 65 Bruins scoring chances off the cycle at 5-on-5 in their playoff series, this season that number fell to 42. For aesthetic purposes the lines are labeled by numbers, but the data will be grouped with the Tavares line as the first line, Matthews as the second, Nylander/Kadri as third, and Gauthier and extras as the fourth. Defensively, Rielly and Hainsey are number one, then Muzzin and Zaitsev, then the rest.
The fourth line was actually pretty effective when Tyler Ennis was playing, but overall it was a black hole in the series. The Bruins’ depth players repeatedly exploited a line that looked great in the offensive zone, but struggled outside of it.
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