Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs

[CascadeFilly]

Andersen kind of crapped the bed tonight (not a huge knock on him, as he's been amazing), as did Gardiner. Still, not a bad season for the Leafs. Brighter days ahead, with a few changes on the back end surely to take place.

Does this series speak to any weaknesses on the part of the Bruins this playoffs, or was it simply Andersen and some great talent up front for the Leafs that made a series out of it?

[pmorrow]

Andersen kind of crapped the bed tonight (not a huge knock on him, as he's been amazing), as did Gardiner. Still, not a bad season for the Leafs. Brighter days ahead, with a few changes on the back end surely to take place.

Does this series speak to any weaknesses on the part of the Bruins this playoffs, or was it simply Andersen and some great talent up front for the Leafs that made a series out of it?

For sure. Rask was shaky at times and McAvoy as well. Chara tends to get tired as the game goes on, I think that another round against a speedy deep skill team will prove difficult. Especially when theyre already missing Carlo. They also won't have home ice, which will allow Hedman to get out against the Bruins top line more often.

[fungchen3]

league max? Naw

Not far off.

[Axeman33]

I have to wonder if McAvoy came back too early or is still battling his injury looking at him play. He wasn't good in this series.

Maybe next year Leaf fans.

[2014olympicgold]

The Gardiner issue came to full light last night. Seems like once he makes a mistake, it snowballs and a game like last night happens. On 2 goals he had the puke behind the night standing still and takes a step to the side and launches a "pass" to the red line. Just skate it out a bit before the pass?

Positives out of that series from a Leaf fan:
-Our issues are at least obvious. Means the focus on the fix should be easier to direct
-JvR and Leo Komarov have their replacements on their roster and on cheap contracts (Kapanen/AJ)
-Rielly is able to play physical. He did well in my eyes, just not that extra gear to carry a series. He had the gear to do it for a game though.
-Dermott, even though a rookie, I think is NHL ready.

[Feenom]

I'm waiting to hear what (if any) injury Matthews is suffering from...

Injury or not, if you can skate get out there and play. He was a no-show for this series. Very disappointing. The Toronto sports shows are not even nagging on his terrible play instead focusing on guys like Gardiner and Freddy. Listen at least Gardiner and Freddy showed up to play and spill their guts out on the ice. Where the hell was Matthews??? He is supposedly your "best" player and he gets only 1 goal when it counts? He can score 50 goals next year but he will now be measured by how he does in the playoffs moving forward.....

[2014olympicgold]

With this series loss, and the Jets win. Toronto is the only Canadian team to not win a playoff series in the salary cap era.

[hockeyrobot]

Tough loss for the Leafs. Not sure about all the Andersen praise. Haven't seen a goalie bobble shots as much as he does. But I guess he is huge and at least is always in good position.

Honeymoon is over next year. Will be interesting to see how this panes out in the Toronto media.

[DusterDave]

Some of us were fools to think we could beat Boston with the D-core the Leafs have. The people defending Gardiner makes me wonder if they even watched the game or series for that matter. The team wasn't good enough right, but Gardiner was absolutely horrible at best. -5 in a Game 7, almost speechless. I sit here not know what else to say/type, just shaking my head. 24:01 TOI is mind boggling and that of course is on Babcock. He didn't have many options to work with but after the first few clear mistakes why did he keep trotting Jake out there? It was a suicide mission and mission complete. This is so unbelievably frustrating. This was a harder pill to swallow than the 4-1 collapse 5 years ago.

[PenguinHunter]

Some of us were fools to think we could beat Boston with the D-core the Leafs have. The people defending Gardiner makes me wonder if they even watched the game or series for that matter. The team wasn't good enough right, but Gardiner was absolutely horrible at best. -5 in a Game 7, almost speechless. I sit here not know what else to say/type, just shaking my head. 24:01 TOI is mind boggling and that of course is on Babcock. He didn't have many options to work with but after the first few clear mistakes why did he keep trotting Jake out there? It was a suicide mission and mission complete. This is so unbelievably frustrating. This was a harder pill to swallow than the 4-1 collapse 5 years ago.

Or if they saw his post-game interview... he took a lot of the blame on him self... so its kind of hard to defend someone... when they are saying they are to blame.

[lucafen4]

some thoughts about game 7 -

1. Gardiner tried to do too much, each time it backfired he tried to do more (instead of less) the next time and it would backfire worse.

2. Andersen overplayed the puck really bad all game - it caught up to him in the 3rd period - See Bergeron's goal - plays the shot he knows is going wide vs. playing the carom off the boards.

3. Rielly is a warrior. takes a Chara slapper to his face and is back out for the 2nd.

4. Kapanen & Johnsson have just made Komarov & JVR expendable.

5. DeBrusk is going to be really, really good - he's a gamer.

6. Rask was shaky too, Leafs took the foot of the gas and started to defend at 4-3 - they can't defend, this team can only attack.

7. Chara's presence was too much for Nylander - a minimum of 3 times in game 7 a puck was dropped into the Bruins zone, Nylander wouldn't even enter the corner once he identified it was Chara he would be battling for the puck - including the final two minutes of the game.

8. Dermott will make Gardiner expendable once his contract expires - would not be surprised to see a trade before his contract is up.

9. I expect to hear about an upper body injury, maybe a groin as well to Matthews in the next few days. He stick handled like Polak all series, he would try to pick spots to rush the net, zero breakaway speed from him, he got pushed off every puck. He couldn't battle - that's not Matthews. He has elite compete in him.

10. Boston was the better team every game. They dominated possession & chances. Part because Toronto did not play their best - but one could argue that's due to Boston imposing their will on the Leafs.

11.Toronto has now lost B2B game 7's to Washington & Boston. Lesson's are being learned here. The young label as an excuse is quickly going t disappear. Moving past the 1st round next year will be the minimum expectation.

[Godin]

I know it's easy to say now but everyone was thinking it all along, the Leafs have no defence and for them to take the next step, they have to address it this summer or else, Mathews or no Mathews, they have no chance. I would think they tried at the deadline but weren't willing to give up what was asked for. Well now they have no choice.

[2014olympicgold]

Some of us were fools to think we could beat Boston with the D-core the Leafs have. The people defending Gardiner makes me wonder if they even watched the game or series for that matter. The team wasn't good enough right, but Gardiner was absolutely horrible at best. -5 in a Game 7, almost speechless. I sit here not know what else to say/type, just shaking my head. 24:01 TOI is mind boggling and that of course is on Babcock. He didn't have many options to work with but after the first few clear mistakes why did he keep trotting Jake out there? It was a suicide mission and mission complete. This is so unbelievably frustrating. This was a harder pill to swallow than the 4-1 collapse 5 years ago.

If you're using +/- as an indicator of Gardiner, he was -1 in the first 6 games of the series.

Gardiner won't be a guy who's offense wins a playoff series enough to swallow his negatives. But in the regular season he can string 10 games of playing great and have his mistakes covered up. But in a playoff game, a mistake gets amplified. Everyone on the Leafs Defense are 1 spot too high it seems. Gardiner can be an effective 3rd line, offensive/PP specialist Defense for 4mill/yr.

Gardiner deserves all the hate for game 7, but I feel like if he put this performance up in game 1, his hate for the series wouldn't be near the same. Everyone remembers the last game, but not a game 2 weeks ago.But again, he deserves all the hate for game 7

[lucafen4]

I know it's easy to say now but everyone was thinking it all along, the Leafs have no defence and for them to take the next step, they have to address it this summer or else, Mathews or no Mathews, they have no chance. I would think they tried at the deadline but weren't willing to give up what was asked for. Well now they have no choice.

There have been season long reports they are going to sign Igor Ozhiganov from CSKA Moscow - A Zaitsev type Dman. Not sure he's a fix of any sort... a 4/5 guy.

Right now - Gardiner & Dermott are the only two Dmen the Leafs should be looking long term on. Zaitsev in a limited role, sure.

[DusterDave]

11.Toronto has now lost B2B game 7's to Washington & Boston.

Lost to Washington in 6 games last year, but all solid points I agree with.