Bruins-Leafs takeaways: Swayman, DeBrusk shine as B’s win 5-1 in Game 1 initially appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON– It’s a brand-new year, however the exact same Toronto Maple Leafs appeared at TD Garden for Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series versus the Bruins.
The Bruins swept the four-game routine season series versus the Leafs, and they opened Round 1 with a remarkable 5-1 win Saturday night.
Boston broke the video game open in the 2nd duration with 3 objectives to increase its result in 4-0. That was excessive of a deficit to conquer, even for a high-powered offending group like the Leafs.
The stars of the video game for the Bruins were Jake DeBrusk and Jeremy Swayman. DeBrusk scored two times on the power play and Swayman made 35 conserves.
Brandon Carlo, John Beecher and Trent Frederic (empty web) likewise scored for Boston.
The Bruins have not tracked for a single second versus the Leafs this season, and the last time Toronto won at TD Garden was March 29, 2022.
Video game 2 is Monday night at TD Garden with puck drop arranged for 7 p.m. ET. Before we look ahead to that match, here are 3 takeaways from Bruins-Leafs Game 1.
4th line makes a strong effect
The Bruins utilized a John Beecher-Jesper Boqvist-Pat Maroon 4th line to begin the series, and this trio played effectively.
It made an instant effect offensively when Beecher opened the scoring with his very first profession playoff objective simply 2:26 into the duration. Beecher took a great feed from Boqvist on a 2-on-1 rush and beat Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
Boqvist and Maroon both made helps on the play.
Not long after the objective, Maroon definitely leveled Timothy Liljegren with a huge hit that sent out the Leafs defenseman flying into the Bruins’ bench.
Maroon tossed his weight around early and frequently. The 6-foot-3, 234-pound forward was credited with 6 hits. The 4th line as an entire integrated for 10 hits and regularly made the Leafs work to develop inside ice. In general, Boston was the more physical group in Game 1, and the 4th line led the charge.
The Leafs entered this series with much better scoring depth than the Bruins. Toronto scored the second-most objectives of any group in the routine season and owned the seventh-best power play. The Bruins require their bottom-six to make an effect offensively to match the Leafs’ firepower. Far, so excellent for the B’s in that regard.
Bruins win unique groups fight
Unique groups frequently plays a critical function in the playoffs, which held true in Game 1.
The Bruins power play had a hard time at the end of the routine season with a 10.5 percent success rate over the last 2 weeks, which ranked 30th out of 32 groups throughout that period.