Before The Bedlam: Boston vs. Toronto

Forgive me – for a moment – for being a simpleton and playing the games on paper but the Toronto Maple Leafs have, player for player, a better roster than the Boston Bruins and therefore, in theory, should win their first round matchup of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begins tonight.

Okay, the moment is over.

The Leafs have lost to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs three times in the last eleven years. There was that infamous Game 7 meltdown in 2013 that left a permanent scar on Leafs Nation, as well as losses in 2018 and 2019, which I have somehow eradicated from my memory because I cannot remember either of them.

All three series went seven games.

At this point, the thought of facing the Bruins in the playoffs needs a trigger warning because it brings me nothing but dread. The matchup has become psychological and they have the advantage.

It does not matter right now that Auston Matthews scored 69 goals this season. We are facing the Bruins and the Bruins always win.

Is there a glimmer of hope for this iteration of the Leafs? Absolutely.

For years, this team has been all skill and no will. Playing the puck possession game in the playoffs and relying on our skill to win games has not worked.

We did not scare anyone with who we put out on the ice. We did not push people around. We got pushed around and then fought back because we had no choice.

For once, I would like to see this team be the first to impose their will on the opponent. I want this team to be the first to lay the big hit. I want this team to be the first to start a post-whistle scrum with all five guys getting involved.

I do not want fake toughness. I do not want performative scrums – where they just grab a guy to box-step with while the others are separated. I do not want this team to be passive. Wipe the “oh no it’s the big bad Bruins” look off your face, tilt your eyebrows downward, and battle.

Yell. Get angry. Have some passion out there. The other team can read your body language and sniff out your fear. They have been doing it for almost two decades.

If the Leafs bring their 2024 skill, as well as an early 2000s attitude to the table, they can be unstoppable.

Will that happen this year? Uh, sorry, I uh…have to go do something. I cannot answer the question right now.

What I do know is the Leafs are going into battle this year with some tougher personnel in the locker room. Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, and Ryan Reaves, and Joel Edmundson bring the meat and potatoes to what has been a plate of au jus for the last eight years.

Bertuzzi and Domi are like the Gary Roberts and Steve Thomas that we have been missing for so long. Those are the type of players who are dangerous in the playoffs.

Mitch Marner and William Nylander are terrific players, sure, but they lean more to the Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Berezin side of the scale this time of year.

You need a goal? Put them out there. Want to make the other team pay on the power play? Put them out there. Want to send the other team a message that you are not going to be pushed around or bullied into submission? Keep them on the bench.

Tell me when I am telling lies.

The time for razzle-dazzle is over. This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you are serious about winning, you need to put on your big boy pants and go take it from the other team.

I think the Leafs goaltending is good enough. No one is Martin Brodeur or Dominik Hasek anymore.

I think the Leafs defence is fine. I do not worry about it as much as Leafs Twitter does because during this time of year, defence is about all five players on the ice.

To me, a common intangible of successful teams in the playoffs is the emergence of “kids” in the lineup who do a great job at supplementing the production of the main guys.

I am talking about guys like Matthew Knies, Nicholas Robertson, and Pontus Holmberg. Those are the type of players who earn more and more trust from the coach as the playoffs go on and come up with big goals in big situations.

If the Leafs can free themselves from the hex that the Bruins cast on them in 2013, then they could very well find themselves moving on to the second round for the second year in a row.

That is a lot harder than it sounds.

And trying to convince a Leafs fan that this year will be any different may be even harder.

But I guess that is why the game is played by tiny men on our television screens and not on paper.