Nazem Kadri suspended for remainder of 1st round: How do Leafs, Bruins match up with Toronto pivot out?

It didn’t take very long for a consensus to be reached. It wasn’t a matter of if Nazem Kadri was going to be suspended for his actions during the Bruins’ Game 2 win on Saturday night — but rather, how long his sentence was going to be.

The writing was on the wall for the 28-year-old pivot after he was called into the NHL’s headquarters in New York City for an in-person hearing with the league’s Department of Player Safety — granting the NHL the ability to levy a suspension of five or more games against Kadri after he cross-checked Jake DeBrusk in the face during the third period of Saturday’s 4-1 B’s win.

The final ruling? The league announced a little under an hour from puck drop in Game 3 that Kadri will be suspended for the rest of Toronto’s first-round series against the Bruins — which, at the minimum, stands as three games, and at a maximum, five.

Kadri’s lengthy disciplinary history definitely played a part in his lengthy suspension, as the center sat out for three games during last year’s playoff series against Boston after crushing Tommy Wingels with a dangerous hit during Game 1. In total, the Leafs forward has been suspended for 14 games over four separate incidents since November 2013, while also getting fined a combined $9,000 for various other infractions. 

While DeBrusk is expected is return to the lineup for Game 3 on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena, the optics didn’t look too good in the immediate aftermath of the hit, with DeBrusk dropping to the ice and Kadri sent off on a game misconduct and a five-minute major.

“Late. Cross-check. High. In the face,” David Backes said on Saturday when discussing the hit.  “Without the puck, really. I’m sure the Department of Player Safety will be looking at it. We’ll let them do their job and we’ll keep playing whoever is in their lineup. If he’s in, fine. If he’s not, we’ll be fine as well and we’ll put the same sort of game out there and concentrate on what our prize is — and that’s winning the next one and winning the next one until they say this thing is over."

BSJ Analysis



While Toronto’s fourth-ranked offense (3.4 goals scored per game) has largely been driven by its potent top six with Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner all in tow, the loss of Kadri is a devastating development for a Leafs team that had a potential advantage in the bottom six with No. 43 in the lineup.

Kadri, who has tallied 80 goals over the past three seasons, centered a pretty skilled third line with Patrick Marleau and William Nylander and — despite his conduct — was arguably the Leafs top forward during Saturday’s Game 2 loss.

When the Leafs lost Kadri during last year’s playoffs, Mike Babcock shifted veteran center Tomas Plekanec into the vacancy on the third line — and it turned out to be an effective solution, as Plekanec matched up against Boston’s top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak and managed to keep that trio off the scoresheet in all three of Toronto’s victories in the seven-game series.

With Plekanec gone, things become much more muddled for the Leafs when it comes to slotting in a viable replacement at center. Based on Monday’s morning skate, it looks as though Nylander will slot over to center Toronto’s third line, while Connor Brown will get a promotion up from the fourth line.

It’s far from the ideal scenario for the Leafs, with Nylander moving out of position to account for Kadri’s absence, while a hard-hitting Brown will look to replace Kadri’s physical style of play.

However, the results have been largely mixed when Marleau-Nylander-Brown have skated on the same line together — generating a 46.50 Corsi For Percentage (minus-11 shot attempt differential) and just one 5v5 goal scored in 76:27 of TOI together this season.

"It affects their depth at center, for sure," Torey Krug said Monday of Kadri's likely suspension. "It takes away a guy that plays at both ends of the ice and plays really hard. That being said, it doesn't change our approach as a team. We still try to play the same way regardless of who is in or out of the lineup. That's the way we approach it."

While Boston and Toronto’s top-six units are expected to trade punches throughout the series, Toronto had a potential edge if the Kadri line was able to outplay a largely unproven B’s third line featuring an assortment of Charlie Coyle, Danton Heinen, David Backes and Marcus Johansson.

With that Leafs line's primary driver in Kadri now out of commission for the rest of the series, Toronto is really going to have to lean on its big guns like Tavares, Matthews and Marner to carry Toronto into the next round. Easier said than done, especially if Boston can continue to bully either line around with the same physical forecheck that it deployed on Saturday.