(Photos by Gspeed0689, Sarah Connors, and Sarah Connors)
On Saturday night, the Bruins missed a prime opportunity to close the door on the Toronto Maple Leafs and advance to the second round, falling by a score of 4-3. In what appears to be a trend in this series, Boston squandered yet another chance to step on Toronto’s throat when they were down and vulnerable and will now have to travel back to Air Canada Centre to try to finish off the series in Game 6.
While the fourth line showed promise--the Worker B’s combined for 4 of Boston’s 9 points in Game 5--the power play and top six forwards struggled to find a consistent offensive attack. Most notably, the Leafs’ defense and goaltending found a way to thwart the attack of Boston’s top line. As Michael Felger pointed out prior to Game 5, the Bruins have concentrated their scoring talent onto one line as opposed to Toronto’s approach of putting the three 30 goal-scorers on three separate lines.
As a result, when Boston’s first line doesn’t show up, the B’s are essentially toast. In Games 3 and 5, the members of the Bergeron line were a combined -7 and -6, totaling -13 in the 2 Bruins losses this series. In Boston’s 3 wins (Games 1, 2, and 4), Bergeron, Marchand, and Pasta are a combined +20. There’s a pretty clear correlation between Boston’s success as a team and the first line’s play, so what do the B’s have to do if they want to win Game 6?
The good news is that it isn’t some massive defensive adjustment that’s causing the first line trouble. Everyone knows Toronto figures to lean heavily on the services of Jake Gardiner, Morgan Rielly, Nikita Zaitsev, and Ron Hainsey--a defensive corps that’s absolutely nothing to write home about. In Games 3 and 5, the top line had its opportunities to put the puck in the back of the net; it simply didn’t capitalize. Just in Game 5, I can remember off the top of my head two chances where Marchand and Pastrnak had wide-open nets to shoot at as Freddie Andersen moved from one side of the net to the other, and they simply hammered it off his pillows. If you still don’t believe me, here are the first line’s shot totals by game: 13 (W), 8 (W), 9 (L), 7 (W), 18 (L). In other words, the issue hasn’t been a lack of chances because of lock-down defense; it’s been that Pasta, Bergy, and Marchy haven’t finished.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a very good hockey club. With 105 points, the Leafs had just one fewer win than Boston. The series should’ve been over last night, and if not for mediocre goaltending/defensive play and the top line’s aforementioned goal-scoring struggles, it would be. The last time Boston lost a Game 5 to Toronto while up 3-1 was just five years ago, and that bout went 7 games. Could Boston finish it off on Monday evening? Sure, but I have a feeling this one’s going the distance.
(Stats via Hockey Reference)
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