Toronto Aiming to Tie Series in Game 4

The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to tie the series at the A.C.C tonight as they play host to the Boston Bruins. Toronto closed the 2-0 gap in game 3 in Boston, and for defencemen, Morgan Rielly, playing in the playoffs is far more fun than watching others vie for the Stanley Cup.

With a playoff career record of nine games, one goal, eight assists and nine point’s total, Rielly was part of the charge that saw a far more aggressive challenge against Boston in game 3 resulting in a 4-2 win for the Leafs.

Commenting on game 3, Reilly said,

“You want to play playoff hockey. When you’re a young guy, 20, 21 years old and you go home early and watch players playing in the playoffs that are younger than you, it’s not a good feeling.”

Another feeling not enjoyed by the team was the embarrassing results in the first two games of the series. Game 1 saw Boston dominating scoring five goals compared to the Leafs one, and game two wasn’t much better as Boston continues to skate circles around Toronto winning 7-3.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The defencemen is not known for his scoring but more so for his passing skills and skating, at 24 and in his fifth year in the NHL, game 3 saw him display a side not often seem. The Leafs managed some impressive saves and goals but also managed to go head-to-head physically against the Bruins, both on the ice and when in front of the net, and few others showed the determination that Rielly showed in game 3.

While Morgan Rielly stands firm in his belief that it was a group thing, the scores speak for themselves, and when taken personally by twenty guys, that can be the difference. As for Coach Babcock, he believes game 4 will be the most competitive in the series so far. When asked about defencemen’s performance, Babcock said,

“He was outstanding. His mom came to town, gave him a little bit of a tightening.”

Toronto also saw Frederik Andersen and Auston Matthews being important contributors to game 3’s win. Matthews scored his first goal in the series, and an important one it was as it was the winning goal. Andersen was on the mark making several big saves including with two minutes left in the game.

While talking about Matthews and Andersen, Rielly said,

“You need those plays. There’s guys on teams that their job is to put the puck in the net. You can go through dry spells or periods where you’re not getting bounces, but in a big game when you get one of your best players to score a big goal, that’s crucial. (Then) your goalie makes a huge stop.

Boston’s Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pasternak collectively racked up twenty points in the first two games and are the perfect recipe for success.

Mike Babcock, while speaking on the success the three together have had, said they have shown over time to have many good nights, but our job is not to let that happen.

He continued by saying,

“They all concern you. They’re all real good players. They’re all different, they’re all real effective and they’ve been real good against us. The less touches we give them, the less time and space, the better off we’re going to be.”

The Bruins will no doubt have to respond to the speed that Toronto showed in game 3 if they are to have success and win the game.

Zdeno Chara, defencemen with the Bruins said,

“We are gonna make some changes … make adjustments, but we just need to be better.”

Whether that happens will be played out tonight on the ice of the A.C.C at game 4 gets underway at 7pm. The Leafs will be without Leo Komarov, due to a lower body injury and are still without Nazem Kadri until game 5.