The Leafs salute their fans (Mark Blinch, Getty Images)
The Leafs capped off an impressive regular season with an odd victory over the Boston Bruins, sealing their playoff destiny in the process.
Here are my 5 takeaways from game 82.
1. Will Lightning Strike Thrice?
I'm going to be perfectly honest. I thought that a Leafs-Lightning playoff series was already sealed. However, yesterday I learned that a Boston victory and Tampa Bay loss would actually send the Bruins into third in the Atlantic Division. Yep, there was a distinct possibility of a Leafs-Bruins series if the games went a certain way last night.
I would've looked a little foolish if this came to be, because in my past few articles of the 5 Takeaways series, I've been mentioning the matchup with Tampa often.
As much as I'm mentally traumatized by prior Leafs-Bruins postseason series, I would have much preferred to face Boston than Tampa Bay. This led to a strange experience watching the game, as I was effectively cheering against my favourite team. I wanted Toronto to lose, especially as I checked my phone and saw that the New York Islanders were beating the Lightning. I groaned when Boston had a goal ruled out for offside and I didn't celebrate any of Toronto's goals. It was weird, to say the least.
Strangely enough, the Islanders did end up beating the Lightning last night, but a weakened Maple Leafs squad prevailed over an even more shorthanded Boston team. Thus, Toronto now is officially matched up with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As Sportsnet's Lux Fox put it, the Leafs drawing the Lightning in the first round is like Mario facing Bowser at the end of 1-1. The way I put it is the Leafs drawing the Lightning is like Mario facing Bowser at the end of 1-1, but if Mario had gotten a "Game Over" on 1-1 of the 5 previous Mario games.
Look, the Leafs are going to lose this series. We all know it. We all know that complaining about a playoff format that gave the best Leafs team in history a matchup with the back-to-back Cup champions as a reward is useless. We all know that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are going to struggle to score. We all know that Andrei Vasilevskiy will finally start trying and lead Tampa to the series win with a .950 SV%.
Either way, even though we know that the next two weeks will end in tears, this will be a heck of a series. Tampa Bay are a mini-dynasty and the Toronto Maple Leafs just had the most successful regular season of their storied 105-year history. The offensive talent on display during this series is mouth-watering. Jon Cooper and Sheldon Keefe are both excellent coaches, trying to stamp their names into history books. At their respective peak performances, Jack Campbell and Andrei Vasilevskiy are top-5 goalies in the NHL. This will be a dandy of a series.
Just prepare for a long-winded rant on Sincere Sports when the Leafs blow a 3-1 lead in game 7.
2. Abruzzese Gets on the Board
Objectively, Nick Abruzzese has had a tough start to his NHL career. For somebody who impacted games often at Harvard, he often fades out at the NHL level. Perhaps that's understandable, considering Abruzzese's age. Either way, it's been frustrating watching the young forward for much of the last month.
Nevertheless, Abruzzese finally got off to a good start in the Show. Late in the first period, he directed a point shot past Jeremy Swayman. It was his first goal (and first point) in the National Hockey League. Keep the puck, young man. That's a special moment.
Abruzzese won't play any playoff minutes, barring an unforeseen injury crisis. Despite that, it's hard to imagine that Abruzzese doesn't play NHL games this season. Though his offensive ceiling has been questioned, he is very mature and pretty responsible defensively. He'd be a perfect cheap fourth-liner with room to grow.
3. Ilya Mikheyev.
It's been a huge season for Ilya Mikheyev. We are not too far removed from a public trade request from Mikheyev, citing a lack of playing time as the reason. Collectively, Leafs fans scoffed. Obviously you're not getting ice time, you're not good enough for more ice time.
Well, Mikheyev's 2021-22 season was essentially a middle finger to anybody who said that. He's no longer a meme and he had matured out of his old nickname. Once known as "Soup" for his love of borscht, the Russian winger is now "Cobra" due to the way he strikes when you're least expecting it.
Mikheyev became the second player in Leafs history to score at least 4 short-handed goals and at least 4 power-play goals in the same season after a deflection goal in the first period. The first player, you may ask? Oh, just a lesser-known player called Mats Sundin. This was despite the fact that he missed a significant chunk of time and only played 1 game in 2021.
Mikheyev's 82-game pace is 32 goals. Those are star numbers and it means he will get paid by somebody in the offseason (hopefully he stays in Toronto). The Leafs' issues for years have been a lack of depth. Now that the team has players like Michael Bunting, Pierre Engvall and Mikheyev, they are the best version of themselves.
4. William Nylander Hoping to Make a Mark
William Nylander was Toronto's best player against the Montreal Canadiens last season in the postseason. Well, now he's much better than he was a year ago. Hopefully, that means he can continue to make a difference in playoff hockey.
Willy has become more aggressive. He's always been incredibly skilled and a multi-dimensional offensive weapon. Now, though, he is relentless in his work ethic. He doesn't let up like he has previously. His defensive game is much improved. He is now undoubtedly a positive on that end of the ice.
We know what Matthews and Marner can do. Nylander is still an unknown. He might be one of the top-10 most talented players in the league. If the Swede can harness his talent for a couple of months, the Leafs will have the offensive depth to win the Stanley Cup.
5. Bruins Gonna Bruin
Not only were the cowardly Bruins too scared to field even a half-competitive lineup for fear of getting matched up with a much superior Toronto Maple Leafs team, they also tried to injure key players.
Clearly preferring a matchup against Carolina than Toronto (though the Canes outscored Boston 16-1 in the regular season when they played each other), the Bruins took load management to the extreme. While the Leafs kept out Matthews, Marner, and John Tavares the Bruins were extra crazy with their policy of resting stars. Hampus Lindholm, Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Taylor Hall, Erik Haula and Matt Grzelcyk were all scratched. I tried to find what the equivalent Leafs lineup would be if Toronto went that extreme (including injuries). So I wrote what a full-strength Leafs lineup would look like, before taking out the players in the slots that Boston was resting. Here it is.
Robertson-Kampf-Engvall
Kerfoot-Abruzzese-Blackwell
Clifford-Spezza-Simmonds
Seney-Steeves-Anderson
Lyubushkin-Liljegren
Dahlstrom-Holl
Rubins-Biega
Kallgren
Does that look like a team that wants to win? I'm probably the only person reading this article who knows every person there. That is essentially the lineup that Boston put together. Embarrassing.
More embarrassing was the fact that they tried to injure Timothy Liljegren. Tomas Nosek boarded the young defenseman in a very dirty way before Morgan Rielly went right after Nosek. It was a play with bad intentions and that is disgusting behaviour in a game that that your team clearly considers meaningless by their roster selection.
I just don't like Boston.
ALL STATS COURTESY OF MONEYPUCK AND NATURAL STAT TRICK
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED
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