2018 NHL Playoffs Round 1 Toronto vs Boston: Game # 4

Time:  7:00 PM

Location: Air Canada Centre

Broadcast/Streaming: CBC / NBCSN

Opponent SBNation Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder

After getting pasted for a couple of games in Massachusetts, the Leafs came out on home ice and looked like themselves.  It was sloppy at times and they needed some heroics from Freddie Andersen, but the Leafs brought the offensive fire they need to win games.  More of that, please.

Patrick Marleau led the charge with a pair of goals.  In his honour: Bear vs. (Former) Shark.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Forward Lines

Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Tomas Plekanec - Mitch Marner
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson - Dominic Moore - Kasperi Kapanen

Defence Pairings

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Roman Polak

Goaltenders

Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney

Nazem Kadri is serving the final game of his suspension for boarding the Bruins’ Tommy Wingels in Game One, while Leo Komarov looks to be still recovering.  So the Leafs are back to the roster that won Game Three.  Tomas Plekanec lost the shots battle to the Bergeron line (everyone does) but played as effectively as we could have hoped, while Dom Moore sure looked like a man who does not want to leave the lineup again.

Jake Gardiner had an extremely fine game on Monday night, and getting more of Playoff Jake would go a long way toward tying up this series.  Freddie let in a couple of muffin goals early and then went into Kill Mode for the third period, making one of the greatest saves I’ve ever seen.

Boston Bruins

Forward Lines

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash
Danton Heinen - Noel Acciari - David Backes
Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Tommy Wingels

Defence Pairings

Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Matt Grzelcyk - Adam McQuaid

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

I said a bunch of stuff, but forget it, because we have one hell of a late-breaking announcement:

Needless to say, the Bruins missing their best player is a situation the Leafs had damn well better be prepared to take advantage of.  We don’t currently have the lines as they will appear sans Bergeron as this is very late-breaking news, but Riley Nash was apparently taking shifts between Marchand and Pastrnak yesterday, so he may be the next man up.

Follow-up: here’s the warmup:

GO LEAFS GO

Game CoverageMaple Leafs Playoffs