“Instead of avoiding or minimizing this hit, Kadri drives his hip into Wingels’ upper body with enough force to cause Wingels to collide dangerously to the boards and cause himself to lift off the ice upon impact”.
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Kadri took exception to an elbow to Mitch Marner from Wingels and replied by taking a run at the Boston forward after he tumbled to the ice, earning a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct in the process.
The B’s went up 3-1 with 38 seconds to play on a fine collaboration by the Bruins first line. I think as a game, as a league, as players, that’s the stuff we don’t want in our game.
He was 2-2-4 last postseason in the Bruins’ six games against the Ottawa Senators, and now it’s clear that his game is at an even higher level.
Kadri can score, shut down and pitch in on the power play.
As for Komarov, based on practice lines it appears he could be bumped up from the fourth line to one of the top two lines in order to add more physicality. Marchand (87 points) has tallied 35 goals and 52 assists and has recorded two or more points on 27 different occasions this year.
“I’m sure they’ll feel that loss, but they have a lot of good depth players”, said Cassidy. “And Johnny’s played with Tomas Plekanec before”.
The second unit has also become risky. This is a talented Toronto squad and until a Boston power play goal broke a 1-1 tie four-plus minutes into the second period, the Maple Leafs had the hosts on their heels.
The Bruins hold a 2-0 series lead as they move to Air Canada Centre for Games 3 and 4.
“Some veterans have been pretty vocal to the young guys, talking about what playoff hockey is like”, Kuraly said.
I’ve been a #Bruins fan for years now, and let me tell you, the last couple have been a little rough for us in Boston. We’re a better team than last night. The home crowd will be loud and slightly pissed-off that they haven’t gotten more out of their team thus far.
“That was weird”, Kadri said.
“He’s an important guy to have at home to play against their top line”.
No doubt Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock has watched the tape over and over while game planning how to counter Boston’s attack.
As productive as Willy Nylander, James Van Riemsdyk and Auston Matthews have been in the offensive end this season, it’s Kadri – because of his multi-faced toolset – who is the one player Toronto could ill-afford to lose against a Boston club that boasts stalwarts like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci down the middle. Marner fed Hyman, who made a nifty pass across to Marner for the second in the second period. “We’ve done that a lot more consistently”. With two goals on four power plays, the Bruins are now five for 10 in the series. “But a lot of these guys played (in the Washington series) past year, they know what it’s like in playoffs”. The Maple Leafs have now gone 20-22 on the road and they have averaged 3.19 gpg and have allowed 3.00 gpg in those games.
He got caught wandering behind the goal shading Brad Marchand when David Pastrnak opened the scoring at 5:26.
So now it’s time for Babcock to find whatever answers there are.
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Babcock left just a single line untouched while wielding the magic marker on Friday’s off day. “Usually it’s not six weeks, you get hot for two or three weeks, you get cold for a week or two, try to get the [heck] out of those cold snaps”. That didn’t stop Capitals coach Barry Trotz from voicing his displeasure with Anderson’s play. It’s a big deal in the game. I thought it was the appropriate call. To make this a series they have to compete like champions. Some nights they do, sometimes they don’t.
