Bruins vs. Maple Leafs - Apr. 6th, 7:00pm - SNO, TSN 1050

[CarltonTheBear]

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Boston Bruins
60-12-5, 125 points​

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Toronto Maple Leafs
46-21-10, 102 points​

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[td]Projected
Lineups[/td]
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[td]Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk
Zacha-Krejci-Pastrnak
Frederic-Coyle-Bertuzzi
Lauko-Nosek-Hathaway

Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Orlov-Clifton

Ullmark[/td]
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[td]Bunting-Matthews-Jarnkrok
Nylander-Tavares-Marner
Kerfoot-O'Reilly-Acciari
ZAR-Kampf-Lafferty

McCabe-Brodie
Giordano-Holl
Rielly-Schenn

Samsonov[/td]
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[td]Scratches[/td]
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Taylor Hall
AJ Greer
Jakub Zboril
Derek Forbort[/td]
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Nick Abruzzese
Wayne Simmonds
Timothy Liljegren
Erik Gustafsson
Conor Timmins[/td]
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[td]Injuries[/td]
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?David Kejci - Lower Body - Questionable
?Taylor Hall - Lower Body - Doubtful
?Nick Foligno - Lower Body - Injured Reserve
?Derek Forbort - Lower Body - Injured Reserve[/td]
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?Matt Murray - Undisclosed - Injured Reserve
?Bobby McMann - Knee - Injured Reserve
?Victor Mete - Lower Body - Injured Reserve
?Nick Robertson - Shoulder - Injured Reserve
?Jake Muzzin - Neck - Injured Reserve[/td]
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[td]Game notes[/td]
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BOS
?Linus Ullmark (38-6-1, 1.90 GAA, .937 Sv%) will likely start for the Bruins

TOR
?Ilya Samsonov (25-10-4, 2.41 GAA, .915 Sv%) will likely start for the Maple Leafs
?Ryan O'Reilly is expected to return to the line-up after missing 4 weeks with a finger injury and with that Keefe finally has all the pieces to what will probably be his playoff game 1 roster. Whether these specific lines last that long is obviously not certain though

	Streams
	NHL66 Sportsurge

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[herman]

Tavares-O'Reilly-Acciari would intrigue me if it doesn't overexpose Acciari (mix in 16/88 whenever)

This would push Bunting-Kerfoot-Nylander together as a sheltered attack line, and let Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner cook in a matchup role.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Tavares-O'Reilly-Acciari would intrigue me if it doesn't overexpose Acciari (mix in 16/88 whenever)

This would push Bunting-Kerfoot-Nylander together as a sheltered attack line, and let Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner cook in a matchup role.

Honestly there's probably half a dozen line-up combo's that could work. I have no idea how Keefe is going to zero in on his game 1 one.

Maybe the most interesting thing will be how much what Tampa's chooses to do will effect Keefe's lines. Lately they've been loading up their top line with Stamkos-Point-Kucherov which obviously makes that line a hell of a threat that will require significant attention but also leaves the rest of their lines looking a little watered down.

Do the Leafs load up a checking unit to combat that or go with a more spread out approach like tonight's lines and hope they win the L2/L3 battles?

 

[Redleaf]

Tavares-O'Reilly-Acciari would intrigue me if it doesn't overexpose Acciari (mix in 16/88 whenever)

This would push Bunting-Kerfoot-Nylander together as a sheltered attack line, and let Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner cook in a matchup role.

Honestly there's probably half a dozen line-up combo's that could work. I have no idea how Keefe is going to zero in on his game 1 one.

Maybe the most interesting thing will be how much what Tampa's chooses to do will effect Keefe's lines. Lately they've been loading up their top line with Stamkos-Point-Kucherov which obviously makes that line a hell of a threat that will require significant attention but also leaves the rest of their lines looking a little watered down.

Do the Leafs load up a checking unit to combat that or go with a more spread out approach like tonight's lines and hope they win the L2/L3 battles?

Yeah with only 5 games left they?d better sort out which lines their running with for game 1, so those lines can gel and be running hot in time .

 

[herman]

Tavares-O'Reilly-Acciari would intrigue me if it doesn't overexpose Acciari (mix in 16/88 whenever)

This would push Bunting-Kerfoot-Nylander together as a sheltered attack line, and let Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner cook in a matchup role.

Honestly there's probably half a dozen line-up combo's that could work. I have no idea how Keefe is going to zero in on his game 1 one.

Maybe the most interesting thing will be how much what Tampa's chooses to do will effect Keefe's lines. Lately they've been loading up their top line with Stamkos-Point-Kucherov which obviously makes that line a hell of a threat that will require significant attention but also leaves the rest of their lines looking a little watered down.

Do the Leafs load up a checking unit to combat that or go with a more spread out approach like tonight's lines and hope they win the L2/L3 battles?

It pays off later to try it all and get players prepared for the various assignments. If we can ice out that stacked Tampa line with 91-90-52/12-64-28, then we've got lots of weapons available against softer matchups.

 

[Bender]

Really curious to see how this one shakes out. The B's have a great lineup and I know they probably don't come back down to earth, but I feel like they should be nowhere near as good as their record indicates. Linus Ullmark having a .937 is literally absurd. If you told me he'd even have a .927 I probably wouldn't believe you, but a .937? Come on. Did he just randomly turn into Martin Brodeur?

 

[Zee]

Really curious to see how this one shakes out. The B's have a great lineup and I know they probably don't come back down to earth, but I feel like they should be nowhere near as good as their record indicates. Linus Ullmark having a .937 is literally absurd. If you told me he'd even have a .927 I probably wouldn't believe you, but a .937? Come on. Did he just randomly turn into Martin Brodeur Dominik Hasek?

Fixed.

 

[Bill33]

Yeah with only 5 games left they?d better sort out which lines their running with for game 1, so those lines can gel and be running hot in time .

I agree with this. I understand the initial need to experiment and find chemistry considering the large amount of turnover in the roster, but I'm getting more annoyed by the constant pre and in-game tinkering. Set what makes the most sense regarding skillsets and let the team develop into them. It isn't a video game.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Really curious to see how this one shakes out. The B's have a great lineup and I know they probably don't come back down to earth, but I feel like they should be nowhere near as good as their record indicates. Linus Ullmark having a .937 is literally absurd. If you told me he'd even have a .927 I probably wouldn't believe you, but a .937? Come on. Did he just randomly turn into Martin Brodeur?

Only 4 goalies in the history of the NHL have played 40+ games in a season with a save percentage over .935:

BOS 22/23 Ullmark .937
BOS 10/11 Thomas .938
BUF 98/99 Hasek .937
TOR 70/71 Plante .944

 

[dappleganger]

Regarding line combinations. I'd go with these combos:

Matthews-Marner
Tavares-O'Reilly
Kerfoot-Nylander

And then mix an extra man in accordingly. I'd even try Kampf with Nylander and Kerfoot.

 

[herman]

Regarding line combinations. I'd go with these combos:

Matthews-Marner
Tavares-O'Reilly
Kerfoot-Nylander

And then mix an extra man in accordingly. I'd even try Kampf with Nylander and Kerfoot.

https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2023/04/05/sheldon-keefe-on-the-boston-bruins-dominance-this-season/

Is it about the option to go either way with loading the top six or spreading it out?

Keefe: Exactly. I think that is important. We have to adjust to that, whether it is certain situations in a game or if the opponent is presenting something that you want to counter. I think we need to be set up that way.

We have tried to keep the Kampf line intact for a while now. Matthews and Jarnkrok?s chemistry is something that we tried and has gone really well. We think that has opened up some doors for us.

Whether it is Matthews and Bunting or JT and Willy, we have some real pairs there. The structure of our lineup is in place. It is just a matter of moving one or two things around here and there depending on the situation.

I like your pairs.

Keefe has his pairs as
Bunting-Matthews
Tavares-Nylander
AstonReese-Kampf

Everyone else is a plug-and-play guy of a particular flavour/skillset (Marner, Janrkrok, Kerfoot, O'Reilly, Acciari)
Lafferty has the potential to ramp up into someone useful when the game gets gritty, but he's probably just a placeholder for Knies.

 

[ZBBM]

As I stated in the General Leafs thread, this is a preview of Round 2.  We will beat Tampa Bay this time.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/flutoshinzawa/status/1644106625723281408
Wait is that Alex Steen?

Edit: nope; Oskar

 

[lamajama]

I just want the Leafs to seal up home ice ASAP and then who cares about the last number of games.  It may not be the end of the world if they don?t get it but psychologically I think it means a lot

 

[ZBBM]

I just want the Leafs to seal up home ice ASAP and then who cares about the last number of games.  It may not be the end of the world if they don?t get it but psychologically I think it means a lot

The fact that they have held the advantage for so long would, to me, make it a bit of a disaster if they blew it at this point.

 

[lamajama]

Wow. This is NOT the way to start.

 

[lamajama]

I just want the Leafs to seal up home ice ASAP and then who cares about the last number of games.  It may not be the end of the world if they don?t get it but psychologically I think it means a lot

The fact that they have held the advantage for so long would, to me, make it a bit of a disaster if they blew it at this point.

Well it?s a good thing those don?t happen to the Leafs

 

[Zee]

That entire sequence hemmed in their own end was courtesy of Schenn, have no idea what he was doing there.

 

[Bender]

Not looking great so far.

 

[L K]

Kampf  getting hemmed in on both their shifts so far