TORONTO — Details, details, details.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs had every reason to feel good about themselves following their Game 2 win, Game 3 saw a lack of attention to detail and many of the same errors that sunk them in Game 1 came back to haunt them. With tight defensive play and an ability to capitalize on their chances, the Boston Bruins earned a 4-2 win over the Leafs in Game 3 and swung the momentum back in their favour.
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“Little mistakes at very important times that end up in our net,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said of what led to the loss. “We didn’t get back to our game nearly as much tonight as we did in (Games 1 and 2).”
There was plenty to like about the Leafs’ play early in the game after Matthew Knies gave them a 1-0 lead. But once the Bruins earned a 2-1 lead, they did Bruins things and nullified nearly every opportunity the Leafs had through the neutral zone, taking a once-vociferous crowd out of the game.
That the Leafs appeared to lose focus and were unable to build off Morgan Rielly’s game-tying goal in the third period by allowing Brad Marchand and the Bruins to take back the lead 28 seconds later says plenty about Game 3 for the Leafs.
“Small lapses. After we tied the game, giving one right back is tough,” Rielly said, before accurately adding that the Leafs penalty kill wasn’t good enough on the night. “It’s just a momentary thing. It’s just a matter of, once you take your eye off the ball, they’re able to capitalize.”
Without William Nylander for the third playoff game in a row, the Leafs looked more and more like a team hurting for offence. They were outshot by the Bruins 34-30.
While it’s still early, the Leafs now sit tied for last among the 16 playoff teams with an average of just two goals per game in the postseason.
Special teams sink Leafs again
The Leafs allowed a power-play goal for the third game in a row. As it stands, the team’s lack of proper penalty-killing personnel is now at risk of sinking them in the series. The Bruins had just two power plays and Jake DeBrusk capitalized on one of them once again with his third power-play goal of the series. Down a man, the Leafs haven’t done a good enough job cutting off passing lanes and have allowed the Bruins too easy a path toward the goal. Ilya Samsonov gave up a tasty rebound on DeBrusk’s goal but how he was allowed to corral that rebound without any resistance from the Leafs is something that will have to be reviewed by the staff.
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It feels too late in the season to start making major adjustments to the team’s approach on the penalty kill. Instead, the players themselves are going to have to find another level of execution that has so far failed them through three games.
“We’ve got to do a better job of the details,” Keefe said of the penalty kill. “Each goal we’ve given up is a different mistake.”
And at the other end: How a highly-potent Leafs offence could get five (!) power plays and not bury a single goal is a testament as much to the Bruins’ ability to swarm the Leafs as it is the Leafs own hesitance to shoot the puck and hope for chaos. The Leafs continually looked too tentative with the man advantage and now have just one power-play goal in the series after 11 opportunities.
Leafs can’t contain Brad Marchand
Brad Marchand is quickly becoming the most hated man in Toronto by doing exactly what he had to do in Game 3.
First, he sneakily tied up Tyler Bertuzzi and took him out of the play as the Bruins stormed toward the Leafs’ goal. Could Marchand have been called for a tripping penalty on Bertuzzi? Possibly, but Marchand is still a master of the dark arts and knows how to influence the game with his pesky play. The Leafs felt distracted and stood frozen as Trent Frederic fired an easy shot past Ilya Samsonov for the game-tying goal.
You could almost feel the Bruins bench buoyed by that play and the Leafs bench deflated by it.
“When (Marchand) gets in his little ball of hate mode, that’s usually when good things happen for the team,” DeBrusk said.
Marchand continued to get in the face and then under the skin of multiple Leafs as the game wore on.
“You’ve got to recognize (Marchand) is a world-class player both in ability and how he plays the game: the gamesmanship, and everything, it’s world-class. He’s been in the league long enough and he gets calls. It’s unbelievable actually, how it goes. We’ve got to play through that stuff,” Keefe said.
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“I don’t think there’s another player in this series that gets away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the way that he does,” Keefe added. “It’s an art and he’s elite at it. So we have to manage our way through that, avoid putting ourselves in situations where he can put us in those spots.”
But late in the third period, Marchand showed the different elements of his game and why he’s a future Hall of Famer. With too much time and space on his hands, he wired a nasty shot past Samsonov to take the lead. And as he skated toward an empty Leafs goal with less than a minute remaining, he could have done the cheeky thing and wired a shot home for a goal. But he simply pushed the puck into the empty net because that was all he needed to do. He was one of the difference-makers, but the Leafs inability to shut him down also needs to be questioned.
Zoom out and Marchand’s unique style can’t have come as any sort of surprise to the Leafs and the coaching staff. Marchand is the same player he’s been throughout his illustrious 15-season career. Those aforementioned dark arts aren’t a hobby he developed in a recent class or anything. Marchand is a player the Leafs should have been better prepared for.
“You just have to be smart,” Keefe said. “You have to recognize the moment and the player or players you are playing against.”
Ilya Samsonov doesn’t make the stops he needs to
Did Samsonov play one of his better games as a Leaf in Game 2? Yes.
Did he allow one, arguably two, goals in Game 3 that in part let the game get away from the Leafs? You could also, confidently, say yes as well.
Samsonov simply has to make a save on the Bruins’ first goal. Trent Frederic’s shot wasn’t all that powerful or doused with that much mustard, but it still found its way under Samsonov.
A save on either the second or third goal would have gone a long way, too. The consistency in Samsonov’s game has long been lacking this season, even though he’s still the unquestioned No. 1 in Toronto. The Leafs will need Samsonov to steal a game for them this series to get by the Bruins, just as Jeremy Swayman did for Boston in Game 1. It wasn’t that kind of game from Samsonov, and while he did stop 30 of 33 shots, it was far from his best.
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Mitch Marner is visible
Heading into Game 3, the concerns about Mitch Marner and his poor production in this series (he didn’t have a single point after scoring 85 points in 69 regular season games) had very quickly become a talking point.
“It’s just about doing the same thing you’ve done all year,” Marner said of the increased attention that comes his way during the playoffs. “Just trusting your team and yourself.”
When it mattered, with Game 3 knotted in a scoreless draw midway through the second period, Marner worked his magic on the ice in a way few NHL players can.
Staring down two Bruins, Marner deftly pulled the puck away from the play to buy his winger, Matthew Knies, some time to get to the net. He then utilized his high hockey IQ to send a pass through three different players and right onto the tape of Knies’ stick.
It was Marner’s 48th playoff point, the most of any Leaf since 1994.
(Photo of Brad Marchand and Tyler Bertuzzi: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)
