Adding John Tavares to their roster pre-season, the Toronto Maple Leafs were expected to take the Stanley Cup without a hitch, but they trail the Tampa Bay Lightning by 14 points and the New York Islanders are only one point behind them.
Tavares’ former team, who was supposed to be at the bottom of the barrel for this season, is only a point behind them. Auston Matthews, who spent a portion of the season recovering from injury is one of Toronto’s few bright spots, but even his 1.21 points per game has not put him in the league’s top ten. Their team stats have not exactly been top tier, either. Center Mitchell Marner is their top point-getter with 63, which is only 10th best in the National Hockey League. Tavares is 24th with 56 and Morgan Rielly is 32nd with 52. In two of the last three seasons, the top point-getter on the Cup-winning team was in the top three of point-getters in the entire NHL. The numbers do not bode well for the Maple Leafs if they keep up these poor numbers. They are also only 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, the overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings who are the third worst team in the Eastern Conference. Their other four losses are to the Arizona Coyotes, Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, and the Boston Bruins. Boston is the only one of these teams who are in a position to acquire even a Wild Card spot. That brings up another interesting point involving the Bruins. Their mean age is 26.03 years old, meaning that they are a very young team that Toronto will have to contend with for years to come, which hinders their shot at future Cups, as well. Why is that so important if Boston is struggling to hold onto a Wild Card spot? This season, the Bruins and Leafs faced four times, three of which Boston won. One of those Boston wins was in Toronto. Boston also won two of those games by three goals or more, losing their only loss by two goals. Now, the Leafs are only slightly older than the Bruins, their mean age is 26.33 years old, but their record against this young Boston team shows that they will have troubles with Boston in not only this year’s postseason, where the two have a high chance of playing each other, but in future seasons for at least the next five years. If teams like Boston are going to be such a roadblock for the team that was supposed to have an easy road to the Stanley Cup this season, then the Leafs are in for some major issues. Not to mention that a team from perpetually warm Tampa Bay, Florida is beating them at a game played on ice, something Tampa has not seen naturally occurring since December 23 of 1989. Toronto is in trouble and is ultimately a disappointment to their fanbase. Jesse A. Cook “Maple Leafs Aren’t Everything They Should Be” February 6, 2019
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The Boston Bruins are making their first playoff run in a few years, but what are their chances at another Stanley Cup win? At this point, pretty high. They’re a game up on Ottawa, and they won in Ottawa, so that takes away total home ice advantage for the Senators. The rest is merely a game of looking at their lineup.
We begin, however, with this opening series: the last time the Bs made the playoffs, Braden Holtby and the Washington Capitals took them down. This time, it’s Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators attempting to do the same. The season series has tilted the Sens’ way, 3-0-1, but now Boston has momentum. They won a close game 2-1 on a late Brad Marchand goal off of the ricochet of Patrice Bergeron shot, and a defeat such as this can be crushing for a team. The Sens are definitely tired after that game, and despite their next match being Saturday, it takes time to recover from such a loss; especially against this brand new Beantown lineup. That brings us to my next point: Charlie McAvoy, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, and Anders Bjork make the Bruins a much more formidable foe to any squadron they matchup against. Combined with an un-mischievous Marchand, a terrific Tuukka Rask, a skate-breaking Bergeron, and a functioning defense, Boston has a great shot at Banner 7. JFK did not play very much and Bjork has yet to be called up, but McAvoy played 24 minutes and 11 seconds on ice. On the Marchand goal, he sent the puck out from behind the net to David Pastrnak who passed it to Bergeron where he fired a shot on goal and sent a ricochet to Marchand who won the game. McAvoy didn’t get an assist on the play, but he did a fantastic job setting it up. If JFK and Bjork can play like Good Ol’ Charlie, Boston is set for years and years and years to come, as well as at least one more Cup win this June. Now, we have to take a moment to talk about Marchy’s temper; he’s a hothead, but after years of laying rather dormant, he’s committed three offenses this year (one of which was merely last week). In January, he slewfooted the Red Wings’ Niklas Kronwall, which means that he committed a “dangerous trip.” A week later, he did it again to Tampa Bay’s Anton Stralman. Last week, he cost himself a couple games worth of ice time by spearing Tampa’s Jake Dotchin in a, uh… rather, uh… “tender area.” Let’s just leave it at that the all-star has to work on keeping his temper under control. Despite his wildness, Marchy is quite the player. He had 85 points, 39 goals, and 46 assists, as well as winning Game 1 of the Boston Bruins’ 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs run. He was also named to the Atlantic Team in the 2017 NHL All-Star Tournament alongside Boston goaltender, Rask. They may be young, inexperienced, inconsistent, and mercurial, but the Bruins have a shot at the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2014. Wednesday’s game was knotted up at 1-1 for a good long while, but after the rebound from a Bergeron bullet, the game turned to Beantown; and Marchy makes two. Jesse A. Cook April 14, 2017 “And Marchy Makes 2” |
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