Bruins-Maple Leafs Series Preview

 2A Boston vs Toronto 3A

And next up in the Eastern Conference going over to a series with a great rivalry we haven't seen in 5 years between two original 6 teams who haven't had much success in the playoffs recently and that is between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

History of Rivalry between teams in playoffs.

This will be the 17th all time matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, now they have both won eight times in their playoff series but the Bruins have wound up wining the last six matchups these two have played which was back in 69, 72 and 74 as well as there most recent three meetings that a lot of people remember back in 2013, 2018 and 2019 so it'll be interesting to see who ends up winning this one.

Season Series record.

Boston 4-0-0 15-7 +8

Toronto 0-2-2 7-15 -8

Bob DeChiara USA Today Sports

Each teams X-Factors: Zacha vs Samsonov

Next we have who I think are the X-Factors of this series for the Bruins and Maple Leafs and who I think could make or break this series for these two teams, now on the Boston side their Center depth is probably the teams biggest weakness as they don't have the Bergeron-Krejci duo they used to have as a 1-2 punch down the middle and although they aren't as great as those two both Zacha and Coyle have actually down quite well as a 1-2 punch for Boston this year but I think Zacha is a real big piece for Boston because if he can matchup well against Tavares and Matthews I think the Bruins are in a good spot while if he isn't able to contend with those top Centers Boston may have a problem, while on the Toronto side it has to be Samsonov in net who they are starting with, now Samsonov started the year at a awful level and was letting in bad goal after bad goal and his confidence was obviously shaken, but then he found his game in the 2nd half and has actually looked quite good, so if Toronto gets 1st half Samsonov they are in trouble but if they get 2nd half Samsonov then they could easily win this series.

Which teams are best at 3 Positions:

John E Sokolowski USA Today Sports

Offense: if you look at the team's offenses I'd probably give the edge offense wise to Toronto, now Boston has Pastrnak and Marchand so I'm not saying Boston's offense isn't great as it is, but I do think the Leafs with all their additions as well as Matthews and Marner do have a little bit more of a deeper offense so I think that the Leafs have a little more of a complete and better offense then the Bruins. 

Defence: if you're looking at the defense I think the Bruns definitely have the better defense, as the Leafs definitely have a couple of good players on defense so again it isn't a awful defense and they have guys like Riley, McCabe, Brodie and Liljegren so not a bad defense, but I think the Bruns defense with guys like McAvoy, Lindholm and Carlo as well as a couple of other guys is a much better defense than the Leafs have, so I definitely give the defensive Edge to Boston 

Goaltending: Goaltending wise I have to give it to the Bruins, I mean you have Ullmark and you have Swayman and those are two really good goalies and I think they are in a much better position than the Leafs are with woll or Samsonov, not saying Woll or Samsonov are not good, but I do feel that the Bruins are in a much better position so I will give the goaltending edge to the Bruins.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Leafs core 4 vs Bruins goalie tandem

Now the biggest on ice matchup in my opinion in this series has to be the Leafs core 4 against the Bruins 2 headed goalie duo. Now the Leafs have had great regular season success over the last 4-7 seasons but haven't had much playoff success and a lot of the criticism and blame usually falls on the core 4 in Toronto because as much as these guys are big time regular season performers, they somehow always disappear in the playoffs and at the big moments, now Nylander has been the best of them and Matthews has done quite well but last year those 4 showed up against Tampa and they finally won a playoff series, so those guys need to be on their game while for Boston they have two elite goalies in their arsenal, one won the Vezina last year and the other got more starts and had better numbers this year so the Bruins may very well be in a extremely good position in net and could use either one but neither got the job done last year against Florida and if Boston wants to win the series both goalies have to be on point.

Predictions:

Now in my opinion this is going to be a tight series and it is going to be a close series, I think these two teams match up really well and as much as the Bruins have had the edge on the Leafs in years past, I do think this is actually going to be a really tight series and as much as the the Bruins did wind up finishing the higher seed I am going to go with the Maple Leafs in seven, not saying that the Bruins can't win this series as I think that it could go either way and I could definitely see the Bruins wind up winning, but I think that the Leafs after exercising last year's demons by beating Tampa and finally winning a series for the first time in 19 years, I think there's a very likely chance they can finally Buck another Trend and that is finally beating the Boston Bruins in a playoff series in the 21st century so it'll be interesting to see exactly what happens but in my opinion Leafs win in 7 games.