Maple Leafs will need to play with more intensity, physicality vs. Bruins in playoffs

BOSTON — High above the TD Garden ice, Joel Edmundson couldn’t sit still.

The towering 6-foot-5 defenceman had been acquired Thursday morning by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade deadline swap with the Washington Capitals. Edmundson arrived to his new team just five minutes after puck drop, itching to get on the ice. That’s because Edmundson has played enough games in the spring to know what everyone else in Boston knew: This second game in four days between the Bruins and the Leafs was a sign of things to soon come.

“That’s playoff hockey,” Edmundson declared of what he saw from a Bruins 4-1 win over the Leafs that had all the hallmarks of the postseason: increased physicality, intensity and tempers.

With the Florida Panthers remaining in first place in the Atlantic Division, the two games this week between the Bruins and Leafs, currently occupying second and third place in the division, undoubtedly served as a playoff preview.

But if the preview ends up being anything like the feature film and unless the Leafs make the right adjustments to their game, their time in a playoff series against the Bruins might be too short, once again.

While the Bruins earned 4 points over two games by dictating the game offensively and physically, the signs of life from the Leafs were few and far between: Tyler Bertuzzi showing the right emotion and intention by trying to drag his teammates into the fight and squaring off against Bruins defenceman Parker Wotherspoon? Long overdue.

Max Domi going after Brad Marchand along the boards in the third period, after Marchand collided with Matthew Knies and sent him out for the game? There will be some who don’t value Domi’s efforts and resent the roughing penalty that came afterward. But upping the ante emotionally on a night when the Leafs often lacked that pushback felt like a fair trade.

“I like that we stood in there,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The temperature of the game really rose.”

Yes, the Leafs’ tempo did increase through the second period, which was encouraging.

“We made a pact in the locker room. No matter what happens, we’re going to stick together. I think that was one of the positives we could take out of tonight is a lot of guys stand up, for sure,” Domi said.

But what might be concerning for Keefe is how effectively the Bruins managed the game, just as they did three days earlier. Marchand ran circles around multiple Leafs, ran into Knies and sent Timothy Liljegren nearly over the boards early. Marchand led the charge for a team that showed a sense of competitiveness not in spurts, but regularly.

And Knies left the game after his collision with Marchand in the first period and did not return. Keefe did not offer any update on Knies’ condition.

As difficult as playing on the second night of a back-to-back against a Bruins team who had the day off Wednesday is, two games in two nights are part of the deal in the NHL.

“I don’t think there’s any excuses, ever, really,” Morgan Rielly said.

The most glaring takeaway from the Leafs’ performance is that heightened intensity and attentiveness with the puck needs to come more consistently come playoff time.

“It’s definitely something we’ve talked about and we’re working on,” Domi said of the team’s physicality, “and I think everyone is doing their part.”

If standing up to the Bruins physically is one box the Leafs are intent on ticking, scoring as frequently as they do in the regular season should be the next. Against a defensively sound team, the Leafs struggled to break through and create much offence. For the second game in a row, Toronto was limited to just one goal. And the Leafs weren’t even unlucky: Per MoneyPuck, the Leafs generated just 1.33 five-on-five expected goals, or just 39 percent of the five-on-five expected goals.

“All five guys are locked together,” Domi said of the Bruins’ defensive play. “They check hard. They play faster than you’d think they are as a team.”

Crucially, both Auston Matthews and William Nylander were held pointless against the Bruins this week.

Both have been outstanding and productive players all season long, for sure. But one goal a game won’t cut it against the Bruins, just as two goals a game didn’t cut it against the Panthers in the second round of last year’s playoffs. The losses against the Bruins hammered home the fact that for the Leafs, as constructed, to have success, they need their top-end players producing.

“(The Bruins) made it hard to create offence. They manage the puck. They don’t make a lot of mistakes,” Rielly said.

On the other end, the Leafs’ penalty kill had another rough evening. They previously went one-for-two on the penalty kill against the Bruins on Monday. Giving up two goals against on five opportunities might have made Keefe wonder if he could bend the rules and call Edmundson down from the press box to help stabilize a penalty kill that has slipped to 77.5 percent on the season and 22nd in the NHL.

“I don’t like the penalties we took early to get them going,” Keefe said. “There was a mistake on the officials’ part there. We should’ve been five-on-four for four minutes rather than five-on-three for two. We are being aggressive and competitive, but those are penalties you can’t take early in the game, especially.”

That need for stability down a man has become glaring. Even if fewer penalties are called come playoff time, this Bruins team looks capable of punishing the Leafs with limited opportunities. Working the team’s newer penalty killers like Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin into their setup quickly should be a point of emphasis over the remainder of the regular season.

One noticeable absence against the Bruins? Pontus Holmberg. The fourth-line forward hasn’t logged a ton of time compared to teammates on the penalty kill. But getting him back in the lineup could be a step in the right direction for the team’s bottom six. His defensive attentiveness was missing on the fourth line against the Bruins.

And one of the other, and final, lineup decisions that needs to be made — with a focus on how these two games against the Bruins unfolded — is who could ultimately lead the team onto the TD Garden ice as the starting goalie come mid-April.

Giving Joseph Woll two starts against Boston in one week so soon after returning from a two-and-a-half-month injury layoff certainly feels like a vote of confidence.

It’s hard to place too much blame on Woll for the losses against the Bruins this week. Yes, he gave up four goals in each of those losses. But two Bruins goals tonight came on the power play and another came off a breakaway following an inexcusable Nylander turnover.

Will those mitigating factors sway Leafs goaltending coach Curtis Sanford one way or the other when recommending who starts Game 1 of the playoffs? Or will giving up eight goals total against a team that the Leafs will likely face in the playoffs simply provide Woll more runway to learn and improve?

“I like my process and ultimately that’s what I have control over,” Woll said. “Obviously I’m not happy with the result. And I want more from myself to give this team.”

He shouldn’t be alone in that sentiment. Nineteen games stand between the Leafs and the Bruins likely meeting again in the spring. And the Leafs seem well aware of what needs to change between now and then.

The players have mostly changed, but the playoff losses the Leafs suffered against the Bruins in 2018 and 2019 must still linger, if only as part of the narrative surrounding this team.

So whether the Leafs can make those changes could determine how long their playoff run lasts and whether this core can finally change that narrative about a Bruins team that still looms large over them.

“Who knows,” Domi said, “what the future has in store.”

(Photo: Richard T Gagnon / Getty Images)

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