Bruins-Leafs takeaways: Swayman, DeBrusk shine as B’s win 5-1 in Game 1 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON – It’s a new year, but the same Toronto Maple Leafs showed up at TD Garden for Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Bruins.
The Bruins won the four-game regular season series against the Leafs, opening Round 1 with a dominant 4-1 victory on Saturday night.
Boston broke the game open in the second period with three goals, increasing the lead to 4-0. That was too much of a deficit to overcome, even for a high-powered offensive team like the Leafs.
The stars of the game for the Bruins were Jake DeBrusk and Jeremy Swayman. DeBrusk scored twice on the power play and Swayman made ? saves.
Brandon Carlo, John Beecher and Trent Frederic (empty net) also scored for Boston.
The Bruins haven’t trailed the Leafs this season, and the last time Toronto won at TD Garden was March 29, 2022.
Game 2 is Monday night at TD Garden and puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Leafs Game 1.
The fourth line makes a strong impact
The Bruins used a fourth line of John Beecher-Jesper Boqvist-Pat Maroon to start the series, and this trio played very well.
It made an immediate impact offensively as Beecher opened the scoring with his first career playoff goal just 2:26 into the period. Beecher got a nice feed from Boqvist during a 2-on-1 rush and beat Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov.
Boqvist and Maroon both earned assists during the game.
Not long after the goal, Maroon absolutely leveled Timothy Liljegren with a huge hit that sent the Leafs defenseman flying into the Bruins bench.
Maroon threw his weight around early and often. The 6-foot-4, 234-pound forward was credited with five hits. The fourth line as a whole combined for eight hits and consistently made the Leafs work to establish themselves on the ice. Overall, Boston was the more physical team in Game 1, and the fourth line led the charge.
The Leafs came into this series with better scoring depth than the Bruins. Toronto scored the second-most goals of any team in the regular season and owned the seventh-best power play. The Bruins need their bottom six to make an impact offensively and match the Leafs’ firepower. So far, things are going well for the B’s in that regard.
Bruins win special teams battle
Special teams often play a crucial role in the playoffs, and that was the case in Game 1.
The Bruins power play struggled late in the regular season with a 10.5 percent success rate over the final two weeks, which ranked 30th out of 32 teams during that span. Boston’s power play found its groove again Saturday with two goals, both scored by DeBrusk in the second period.
The Bruins now have five power play goals in five games against the Leafs this season, including Game 1. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Bruins continued to take advantage of the power play, as the Leafs are not a good penalty killing team. Toronto’s PK ranked 23rd in the regular season.
The Leafs’ power play ranked No. 7 with a 24 percent success rate in the regular season, but it was unable to convert on either of its two chances in Game 1. Not only did the Leafs fail to score with the man advantage, they failed to generate a single shot or scoring opportunity in those minutes.
The Leafs have no chance of winning this series if the Bruins win the special teams battle by such a lopsided margin.
Swayman shines in net
The Bruins decided to give Jeremy Swayman his first career Game 1 start, and the 25-year-old goaltender played fantastic.
He made 11 saves in the first period, including an excellent left pad stop on an A-score opportunity in the low slot. Beecher put the B’s up 1-0 a few minutes later.
Swayman was even better in the second period, making 13 saves, including a pair of clutch stops on a Leafs power play early in the frame.
In total, Swayman made 33 saves on 34 shots. The Leafs managed to get past Swayman early in the third period when David Kampf got his team on the board. Other than that, it was a pretty flawless performance for Swayman, who earned his fourth career playoff win.
It will be interesting to see if the Bruins use a goalie rotation in this series and start Linus Ullmark in Game 2. The B’s enjoyed a lot of success using a rotation during the regular season. That said, Swayman is now 4-0-0 with a .973 save percentage in four games against the Leafs this season. It may be difficult to pick Swayman out of the net with those numbers.
