Toronto Maple Leafs return to scene of crime against Boston Bruins

The Toronto Maple Leafs matchup against the Boston Bruins will have some extra meaning as it is the first meeting since Game 7.

There aren’t many times where a Toronto Maple Leafs game will have extra meaning to it in the month of November but the first trip to Boston since the team’s Game 7 loss is one of those occasions.

For many Leafs fans, the memory of that game still haunts to this day after the Boston Bruins scored four unanswered goals in the third period to eliminate Toronto from the postseason.

A lot has changed since that game for the Leafs with the addition of John Tavares being the most obvious one and unfortunately, Toronto won’t be at full strength with the absence of Auston Matthews and William Nylander. The Bruins will be without starting goaltender Tuukka Rask who is taking time away to deal with a personal matter.

Coming off a big 6-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, Toronto can rest easy knowing that they can still get the job offensively at Scotiabank Arena. Boston knows they will have a tough test against a Leafs team that hasn’t lost a game on the road this season and had a convincing 5-0 win last week against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After scoring two goals in a two-game stretch, the Bruins offence exploded for five goals against the Vancouver Canucks, unfortunately, they allowed eight goals against. This means Boston will be coming out with a purpose because they do not want to be embarrassed in consecutive games at home.

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Expect them to roll out a similar gameplan from the 2017 playoffs where they use a relentless forecheck to put pressure on the Leafs defence to make quick decisions in their own end. This is a game where Jake Gardiner will look to get some retribution after he had a performance to forget in Game 7.

Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman will probably draw the tough matchup against Patrice Bergeron’s line but considering how they matched up against Sidney Crosby a week ago, it should be a welcomed challenge.

Obviously, the Bruins will try to stay out of the penalty box in order to take away the Leafs biggest weapon and hope to force them to beat them at 5-on-5.

Garret Sparks is expected to get the start considering this will be the second game of a back-to-back and if he wants to earn more starts going forward this is a game he will need to come up with a strong performance. At the same time, Frederik Andersen has been stellar so far this season and the team would be wise to manage his workload so that he can play like this in the playoffs.

If the Leafs can weather whatever the Bruins throw at them in the early going, this is a game they can easily win but if they let themselves get overwhelmed and lost control of the game, Boston will have the advantage.

What are your thoughts on this game? Are the Leafs favoured to win it or are the Bruins not getting enough credit? Let us know in the comments below.