The newest installment of the Bruins-Maple Leafs playoff rivalry will formally get underway Saturday night at TD Garden.
And by now, there’s no secrets when it comes to these teams and how they feel about one another.
The latest chapter of the rivalry is headlined by the power-on-power matchup of David Pastrnak and the Leafs’ Auston Matthews, of course, but as is the case with any playoff series, this one is bound to go deeper than that.
John Tavares
Mar 30, 2024; Buffalo, New York, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) reacts after scoring a goal during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)
It stands to reason that Auston Matthews will get his. He’s coming off a 69-goal season, and players like that don’t just disappear in the playoffs. Try as the Bruins might, but the odds indicate that Matthews will play a significant role in this series. But if he doesn’t, or even if he does for that matter, John Tavares needs to be the second-best center in this series for the Maple Leafs to truly lay the hammer on the Bruins’ ability to keep up with them offensively.
Tavares finished the regular season with 65 points in 80 games, which was his lowest single-season total in any year that’s featured at least 70 games played, but he did finish strong, with 12 goals and 22 points over his final 23 games of the season.
Tavares has also been nails at the faceoff dot this year, with a 59.3 percent success rate. That’s an underrated element he can bring to this series, really, as the Bruins have not been a strong possession team in 2023-24. If the Leafs can begin their shifts with the puck on their stick, that’ll obviously minimize the potential damage at the other end.
Max Domi
Apr 3, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Max Domi (11) stretches during the warm up before a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Scotiabank Arena. (John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports)
The Bruins know what a pain in the ass Max Domi can be over the course of a seven-game series. In fact, they saw it firsthand when Domi was on the Hurricanes team that eliminated the Bruins in seven games in 2022.
But Domi is another Leaf who finished strong, with 17 points over his final 21 games of the regular season, and is projected to skate to the right of Auston Matthews on Toronto’s top line. Domi is also coming off a 2023 postseason run in Dallas that featured three goals and 13 points in 19 games played.
For a Bruins team that’s stressed locking things down around the front of their net, Domi is a menace to watch.
Tyler Bertuzzi
Mar 28, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi (59) heads up ice against the Washington Capitals during the third period at Scotiabank Arena. (John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports)
To be honest, the Bruins really didn’t miss Tyler Bertuzzi this season. But those of you who found yourself firmly in the Team Keep Bertuzzi By Any Means Necessary camp are about to have your feelings completely validated or officially proven wrong depending on how No. 59 performs in the postseason and against his former club.
After really struggling to find his footing in Toronto, Bertuzzi ended his year with 15 goals and 23 points over the final 34 games of the regular season, and will look to build off last year’s postseason run that featured five goals and 10 points in seven games with the Bruins. But for all the offensive strides, Bertuzzi struggled when it came to giveaways and costly giveaways at that, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Bruins try to goad him into in this series.
Jake McCabe
Feb 22, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) warms up before a game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. (Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports)
Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe is a name to watch in this series for both good and bad reasons here. The good is that McCabe is a supremely physical defenseman who can throw his weight around and block shots. His 219 hits this year were a career-high, while his 129 blocks were the third-most he’s had in any NHL season. Now, the bad is that he can be prone to a bad penalty or two, and was in the final Boston-Toronto meeting of the regular season.
McCabe with the cross check on Marchand. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/MK9YVyOaRn
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 8, 2024If the Bruins can get McCabe to boil over and take some dumb penalties, Boston’s power-play unit (which went 3-for-10 against the Leafs in 2023-24) can go to work and really put this team in the danger zone.
