Toronto might control matchups on home ice - but return of DeBrusk & Krug bring further headaches for Leafs

The Bruins took part in a losing battle on Thursday, coming up short in a track meet against a skilled Leafs forward corps in Game 1, but Bruce Cassidy was not about to make the same mistake twice two days later at TD Garden.

Heavy checks and a suffocating forecheck were the prescriptions for the B’s in Game 2, with Cassidy opting to roll his top defensive pairing up of Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy with his checking line against the Leafs’ top trio of John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman.

While Noel Acciari, Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom limited the Tavares line to just one shot attempt and zero shots on goal during over six minutes of 5v5 TOI on Saturday, Boston’s Bergeron line kept Auston Matthews in check, with the Leafs’ franchise pivot now scoreless through a pair of playoff matchups — and limited to just one goal in nine career playoff matchups against the B’s.

Add in Charlie Coyle’s line generating a pair of goals en route to the 4-1 win, and it appears as though Cassidy out-matched Mike Babcock on the bench after a series of blunders in the opening matchup.

“The Acciari line had a matchup with Tavares,” Cassidy said Sunday. “Part of that was wanting to be physical in the game, want them to work to get all the way to our net. They’re pretty reliable in terms of not getting out of position, you hope that there’s no odd-man rush situations. I thought Charlie (McAvoy) did a real good job. Zee is always going to be back there to take care of business, but I thought Charlie understood that his primary role (on Saturday) was to be hard against the top line.

“We’ll certainly play Bergeron at times against Tavares. We wanted to make it harder on Matthews too as well — to skate, defend — and Bergeron out there against him forced him to do that. … The matchups worked out well.”

Things will be a bit tougher for Cassidy and Co. now that the series has shifted up to Toronto for Games 3 and 4 — with Babcock now able to dictate matchups by having last change. Add in the fact that Boston appeared to be shorthanded going into Monday’s contest following injuries to Torey Krug and Jake DeBrusk, and it appeared as though Toronto was primed to land a few punches in against a weakened B’s roster.

Not so fast.



While both Krug and DeBrusk exited Saturday’s victory early — by way of heavy check by Jake Muzzin and cross-check by Nazem Kadri, respectively — both took part in Monday’s morning skate at Scotiabank Arena, with Cassidy noting that both expect to be back in the lineup and ready for game action.

"There were thoughts (about returning during Saturday’s game),” Krug said, less than 48 hours after being drilled into the boards by Muzzin. “I passed all the tests and felt good. I was able to come back, but the doctors are doing their job and making sure that I didn't go back out there and get hurt again. That was their decision, but I'm happy with it and obviously we ended up winning, so can't complain."

DeBrusk also seemed poised to sit out for at least a couple of games after Kadri’s cross-check dropped him along the boards, but the 22-year-old said he wasn’t worse for wear — although he expects to hear it from the Toronto crowd after getting into numerous kerfuffles with Kadri through the first two games of the series.

“I've never really been that before, (public) enemy No. 1," DeBrusk said. "In saying that, we're focused on the game tonight as a team and no matter what the distractions are off the ice, we kind of agreed as a group that we keep it internally and I think that helps, especially when things get out of hand. That’s kind of how we’re taking that.”

Had DeBrusk and Krug both sat out, Boston would have likely turned to Paul Carey and Jakub Zboril — not the ideal sort of reinforcements that one wants to see in a potential series-swinging Game 3. While he’s posted zero points so far this series, DeBrusk lit the lamp five times over seven playoff games against Toronto last spring, while Torey Krug remains as one of the top power-play QBs in the league.

Aside from the obvious offensive contributions, however, keeping both DeBrusk and Krug in the lineup also make things that much tougher for the Leafs.

Krug is by no means a shutdown presence on the blue line, but he has put together some impressive results so far this series when slotted in next to his usual partner in Brandon Carlo.

While primarily tasked with limiting a 37-goal scorer in Matthews, the Krug-Carlo combination has been out on the ice for a plus-11 shot attempt differential and a plus-1 goal differential in 21:22 of 5v5 TOI together this series. Had tonight’s lineup featured, say, Carlo-Zboril? Then Babcock has a much more favorable matchup for Matthews to exploit.

DeBrusk’s ability to keep up up with Toronto’s speedier forwards and throw his weight around along the boards also makes him a valuable commodity this series, with the winger doing a solid job matched up against the Matthews line in Game 1 (61.11 CF%, 0 goals allowed, plus-2 shot differential) and the Kadri line in Game 2 (66.67 CF%, 0 goals allowed, plus-4 shot differential).

Both Krug and DeBrusk figure to remain as thorns in the side of the Leafs as they still prod for favorable on-ice matchups, but Cassidy noted Sunday that oftentimes, tone can take precedence over strategy when it comes to finding postseason success.

“I think every game takes on a life of its own,” Cassidy said. “We knew that we weren’t very good in Game 1. We wanted to rectify that in Game 1 and respond. We did. So now, what happens? The team that loses, they go home, lick their wounds and they get ready for the next game. So I suspect that Toronto would be in a bit of position we were in going into Game 2.

“So we have to be ready for their best. You may not get the exact physical response out of every player, but managing the puck, we should be able to repeat that and understand that hey, the goals we scored, we put it behind the net. (William) Nylander kind of gifted us one there, but still, it started with getting a mindset of hey, let’s get pucks deep. We were able to disrupt their speed up the ice. … That’s the mindset we have to take along with the physicality.”