Bruins Notebook: Bruins and Leafs set to renew rivalry

A lot has changed since the Bruins last played the Toronto Maple Leafs back on Nov. 6.

David Pastrnak was still riding with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Erik Haula had not found his game. The B’s were hoping chemistry between Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle would materialize. Trent Frederic was still trying figure out how to be an every-night NHLer. A No. 1 goalie had not yet emerged. And, oh yeah, Hampus Lindholm had not been added to the mix.

Before all those things were sorted out, the ever-striving Leafs appeared to have overtaken the B’s finally in their decade-long battle, scoring a convincing 5-2 win at Scotiabank Arena that night.

But the B’s are unquestionably better than they were in that early season matchup, and on Tuesday they’ll get some more important data to gauge just how much better when they lock horns with Toronto at the Garden for the first and only time this regular season.

All things considered, the teams might as well be seeing each other for the first time. And with the only remaining game between the two teams being the last regular season game (often a rest-the-regulars game), it could be the only meeting of the season in which the teams are relatively at full strength.

“The atmosphere is a little uncertain because we haven’t seen them much. We saw them in November. I don’t think we were the best version of ourselves then so we’re not going to use that game to draw any comparisons other than what Toronto has and what they continue to do well,” said coach Bruce Cassidy on Monday. “So I think we’re all a little bit curious, kind of like when we were into Tampa a little earlier and saw them last week and getting familiar with them again. Toronto’s the same thing. We see them a couple of times down the stretch here. It’ll be good. It’s two passionate fan bases. They’ve been good hockey games, obviously tilted in our favor in the playoffs but the regular season has gone back and forth. I think our guys will be excited to play because it was developing into a rivalry that hopefully gets up and running again, now that we’re back in the same division. We should be good to go. It’ll be a good test.”

The sky is forever falling in Leaf-land, where they haven’t seen a Stanley Cup parade since 1967. The current panic is over the goaltending, an understandable area of concern. Jack Campbell, who had been the No. 1 but was faltering at the time of going out of the lineup, is making the trip but he’s not expected to play because of his lingering rib injury. Erik Kallgren came up to post a couple of big wins when Auston Matthews was suspended, but has come back to earth recently. Petr Mrazek has won his last two starts, including a big one over the Atlantic Division-leading Florida Panthers, but that has only gotten his save percentage up to .890.

But for all the hand-wringing north of the border – and the glee B’s fans get from it – the Leafs are still a very dangerous team. While the B’s have been on absolute heater since Jan. 1 (27-9-3), the Leafs – for all their perceived issues – haven’t been exactly awful in that time (21-11-3).

They also come into the Garden with the best power play in the league (29.2%) and even a better penalty kill (84.2%) than the B’s (81.5%). They’re third in goals per game (3.65) while the B’s are still 16th (3.05). The Leafs have also made their own deadline acquisitions in Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell.

While the B’s could still match up against a number of teams in the first round, another Leafs-B’s first rounder is a real possibility. And that makes Tuesday’s tilt even more intriguing. The teams are in a points tie with the same 41-19-5 records, but the Leafs have the tie-breaker with regulation wins (35-33). The B’s are practically the same team at home as they are on the road (20-10-2, 21-9-3), but the Leafs are discernibly better at home (24-7-2) than away (17-12-3).

In the three times the B’s have beaten Toronto in playoff series over the last decade, they’ve needed a Game 7 at home to get them over the hump. Home ice advantage is not the be-all, end-all but it still matters, especially with these two teams’ recent history.

“(The game) does matter a little more in the standings because of where we are. We haven’t talked to all about the standings other than moving up in them as the year went on. We’ve been able to accomplish that and now we’re back in the same area code as these other teams,” said Cassidy. “We’ll see how that plays out down the stretch. We can only control what we can control and that’s our focus (Tuesday) night, just outplaying the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

This should be a fun one.

Swayman gets the net

Jeremy Swayman will get the start for the B’s but Cassidy will go with the same six defensemen and 12 forwards.

Cassidy does plan to get Mike Reilly and Josh Brown into the lineup at some point, and it may at the same time as a third pairing.

“They’ve been working together as a pair. They complement each other in terms of size and a puck-mover, so that might be one where we pull them in together,” said Cassidy. “Let’s get through (Tuesday’s) game and see how everyone looks on the back end but we’re certainly contemplating a 2-for-2 switch because they’ve started working together and I think it could be a complementary pair.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/68Hhko3