Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins – ECQF Game #4 Preview, Analysis & Projected Lines

Tonight at the Air Canada Centre, the Maple Leafs will attempt to hold serve at home and send the series back to Boston all tied up at 2-2.

If Game 3 was a definite do-or-die situation, the idea of going back to Boston down 3-1 makes tonight’s game not far off of one, either.

The lineups are not expected to be any different than in Game 3, with defenseman Adam McQuaid — who left the game injured on Monday — expected to be back on the Bruins’ bottom pairing. The one change is the expected return of Matt Grzelcyk (game-time decision) to Boston’s bottom pair next to McQuaid. The Leafs will leave their lineup untouched after their Game 3 win.

For keys to tonight’s game, check out Alec’s piece from this morning.

Playoff Stats

Game Day Quotes

Mike Babcock on the lack of space on the ice at playoff time:

They did a good job of getting on top of us in the first two games. When a team gets on top of you first, I don’t think your speed ever shows. I think we started on time and were competitive from the get go; therefore, we were able to look more composed and execute better. There is not a whole lot of room. I mean, I’ve been through the game I don’t-know-how-many times trying to figure out where the room is. There is not much room either way. When you get your chance, you’ve got to make your plays and you’ve got to get to the net as hard as you possibly can. And keep them away from your net.

Babcock on Morgan Rielly and the Leafs‘ best players bouncing back in Game 3:

The first thing is, the forwards did a good job for him. I thought Riels had his best game, by far, in the series. I thought him, Freddy and Matty were significantly better than they were the other games — which, I mean, you need your big guys to be good. That made us better, for sure.

Babcock on the struggling penalty kill:

I didn’t think the penalty kill was very good. I just think they missed the empty net. I actually thought our PK might have been better before; we got some bounces. We’ve got to do a better job on the PK. We all understand that. It’s like anything in life — sometimes, when things go bad for you, you get on your heels rather than on your toes and going after it. We’ve just got to do a better job. We’ve been through it. Our penalty killers understand it totally. Stay out of the box, and when you get your opportunity, build momentum off of that.

Babcock on whether it’s structure or execution that is the issue on the PK:

It’s called going slow when you’re in panic mode. When they’re zipping it around on us, it just keeps going in our net. Plays that never went in our net go in our net, and suddenly you’re on your heels instead of your toes. Can you build off of that [kill in Game 3?] I didn’t think it was very good, but it didn’t go in the net, so you can build off of that, for sure, that way. We know we’ve got to be better. We’ve tried to make the adjustments accordingly, both with our attitude… and I don’t mean our attitude in a negative way at all. It’s just being loose and jumping rather than standing around and watching them play.

Bruce Cassidy on potentially getting defenseman Matt Grzelcyk (game-time decision, expected to play) back in the lineup:

Let’s go matchups. If they’re playing against the other team’s fourth line, those guys are gone — Johnsson and Kapanen. He’s got the foot speed to be able to match that part of the game when they take off… He’s a guy who can get it up hurry; he doesn’t have to go D-to-D. When he gets on it, he usually delivers a good pass. So that’s a part of the game we missed the other night. Nick was fine, but that is Gryz’s strength. I think he’s defended really well for a young guy in the league for a guy that is 175 pounds. He’s done a really good job figuring out how to defend. So we missed him the other night.

Cassidy on the battle of the transition games between the two teams:

Transition — just like how they want to counter, we have been a pretty good transition team all year. We can strike on turnovers or punted pucks if they’re not structured.

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup

Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
(3-1-2-3) – (3-1-0-1) – (3-0-1-1) | Total Goals: 2
Marleau – Plekanec – Marner
  (3-2-0-2) – (3-0-1-1) – (3-1-3-4) | Total Goals: 3
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
  (3-2-0-2) – (3-1-1-2) – (3-0-2-2) | Total Goals: 3
Johnsson – Moore – Kapanen
 (2-0-1-1) – (1-0-0-0) – (3-0-0-0)  | Total Goals: 0

Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
 (3-0-4-4) – (3-0-0-0) | Total Goals: 0
Gardiner – Zaitsev
 (3-0-0-0) – (3-0-0-0) | Total Goals: 0
Dermott – Polak
(3-0-0-0) – (3-0-0-0) | Total Goals: 0

Goaltenders
Andersen (.855 sv%)
McElhinney (.826 sv%)

Extras: Leivo, Martin, Carrick

Suspended: Kadri

Injured: Komarov

Boston Bruins Projected Lineup

Forwards
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
(3-1-5-6) – (3-0-5-5) – (3-4-5-9) | Total Goals: 5
Debrusk – Krejci – Rick Nash
  (3-1-1-2) – (3-2-1-3) – (3-1-0-1) | Total Goals: 4
Heinen – Riley Nash – Backes
(3-0-0-0) – (1-0-0-0) – (3-1-0-1)  | Total Goals: 1
Schaller – Kuraly – Acciari
(3-0-1-1) – (3-1-2-3) – (3-0-0-0)  | Total Goals: 1

Extras: Gionta, Wingels

Defencemen
Chara – McAvoy
 (3-1-1-2) – (3-0-1-1) | Total Goals: 0
Krug – Miller
 (3-0-5-5) – (3-1-0-1) | Total Goals: 1
Grzelcyk – McQuaid
(2-0-0-0) – (3-1-0-1) | Total Goals: 1

Goaltenders
Rask (.911 sv%)
Khudobin (N/A)

Injuries: Brandon Carlo