Forwards. Your bread-winners of hockey games. They do everything fans tend to like. Score goals, throw hits, celebrate goals, get into fights, that sort of thing.

And today, we’re gonna look at Boston and Toronto’s forward lines, break them down, and decide who has the edge going into this playoff series.

And before you wonder why X line isn’t actually the X line from practice, I am using the most frequent combinations of forwards for the Maple Leafs over the last 82 games, their overall TOI, versus an expected matchup between each line. We will probably know lineups a lot closer to Game 1 and there’s a real good chance it could change.

So! We have a deep dive to take. Let’s get in there.

VISUALS:

Sean Tierney and Corsica

First Line:

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak

VS.

Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander

• 5-on-5 Time on Ice:

533.75 minutes

vs.

639.93 minutes

• Overall Points:

BOS: (34g - 51a - 85pts) - (30g - 32a - 62pts) - (35g - 45a - 80pts)

vs.

TOR: (15g - 25a - 40pts) - (34g - 29a - 63pts) - (20g - 41a - 61pts)

• 5-on-5 Points:

BOS: (18g - 26a - 44pts) - (14g - 17a - 31pts) - (20g - 28a - 48pts)

vs.

TOR: (13g - 20a - 33pts) - (26g - 19a - 45pts) - (12g - 32a - 44pts)

• Individual Corsi-For%:

BOS: 56.2% - 57.55% - 55.41%

vs.

TOR: 49.74% - 49.97% - 49.98%

• Corsi-For% as a line:

BOS: 58.6%

vs.

TOR: 51.27%

Advantage: Bruins

Reasoning: There are few lines in hockey I think that can adequately match up to the way Boston’s first line plays. It’s truly staggering how dominant they are in nearly every aspect of the game, the last few games none-withstanding.

Patrice Bergeron is as per usual was the most perfectest two way perfect forward to ever perfect even with his games played bitten into by injury. David Pastrnak is a power play weapon and one of the most dangerous players in the game around the hashmarks/circles right now, up to and including the fact that on 5-on-5 he actually leads the Bruins in scoring, and Brad Marchand’s brilliant season of sniper-like efficiency and maneuvering through opposing defenses was only marred by his usual set of obnoxiousness that can both seriously benefit the Bruins and also harm them.

Meanwhile, for all the fantastic work Mike Babcock’s first line puts in, and for how fast they are, Toronto’s first line doesn’t actually possess all that well, and if you can shut down Matthews, you shut down a big part of their attack. They’re unquestionably very fast, very super extra skilled, and the shot on Willian Nylander is second to very, very few, and that’s something to be very aware of, but having the Bergeron line matching up against this group in playoff action will be a real man-amongst-boys scenario.

Second Line:

Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash

vs.

James Van Reimsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Mitch Marner

• 5-on-5 Time on Ice:

68.47 minutes

vs.

529.8 minutes

• Overall Points:

(16g - 27a - 43pts) - (17g - 27a - 44pts) - (15g - 26a - 41pts)

vs.

(36g - 18a - 54pts) - (11g - 32a - 43pts) - (22g - 47a - 69pts)

• 5-on-5 Points:

(14g - 20a - 34pts) - (9g - 20a - 29pts) - (15g - 10a - 25pts)

vs.

(21g - 9a - 30pts) - (8g - 22a - 30pts) - (14g - 21a - 35pts)

• Individual Corsi-For%:

54.55% - 54.28% - 50.17%

vs.

54.34% - 52.36% - 51.88%

• Corsi-For% as a line:

56.49%

vs.

55.59%

Advantage: Toronto, due to more reliable data and less reliant on “what if” scenarios

Basically, if Rick Nash is at 100% and can handle the rigors of the second line, there’s no reason to believe it won’t be a pretty fantastic line as Rick can properly take space that David Krejci creates, can help set up Jake DeBrusk for his usual fearless barrelling to the net. In the limited time Rick Nash was with this line, it’s clear all three players benefitted from being around each other.

Of course...that’s all just early returns. And it all hinges on whether or not Rick Nash can handle it or is even at 90% of what he was during the regular season. Otherwise, there’s a good chance he’s probably not going to be on this line or even in the game. And if that happens?...Not exactly a fantastic thing for a line that excels at offense and little else.

Meanwhile, the Bozak line has definitely seen a major resurgence in the wake of what might be allegations that Tyler Bozak hasn’t been close to worth the money he’s paid. He’s certainly been helped by having two of the fastest players in hockey playing with him in Marner and JvR, and having JvR able to sit on the doorstep and tip goals in has been one of the most powerful any-strength weapons the Leafs have on hand. It may be the Matthews line that gets the Leafs into the offensive zone, but it’s the Bozak line that makes sure they stay there.

Third Line:

Danton Heinen - Riley Nash - David Backes

vs.

Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Connor Brown

• 5-on-5 Time on Ice:

331.9 minutes

vs.

365.95 minutes

• Overall Points:

(16g - 31a - 47pts) - (14g - 27a - 41pts) - (14g - 19a - 33pts)

vs.

(27g - 20a - 47pts) - (33g - 23a - 56pts) - (14g - 14a - 28pts)

• 5-on-5 Points:

(12g - 19a - 31pts) - (9g - 20a - 29pts) - (8g - 9a - 17pts)

vs.

(15g - 14a - 29pts) - (19g - 14a - 33pts) - (10g - 12a - 22pts)

• Individual Corsi-For%:

55.22% - 52.6% - 55.42%

vs.

49.16% - 48.37% - 49.58%

• Corsi-For% as a line:

56.54%

vs.

50.14%

Advantage: Offensive bite goes to Toronto, Defensive acumen goes to Boston

Reasoning: Here’s the dirty little secret about Nazem Kadri’s line. It’s defensively pretty good. Really good, even...but it’s not great at getting the puck up ice. So while chances might go down while they’re out there, there isn’t really much stopping Boston from setting up camp in Toronto’s end. And the addition of Patrick Marleau? Hasn’t helped or fixed much of it. Marleau has a tendency to go beast-mode during the postseason, and that could very easily come back to bite the B’s if that particular time-bomb goes off, but as it stands, it’s a line that is very...very...very dull. And honestly, kind of prone to being hemmed in.

Compared to Boston’s defensive acumen of actually leaving the defensive zone on the other hand, there’s almost no comparison. While the Riley Nash line has the same dulled edge as a line based primarily on defense-first, it’s also way, way more effective at generating chances and getting the puck up ice than the Kadri line. Scoring goals on the other hand? Less so, but Danton Heinen has proven he can do this during the regular season, so hopefully he can help alleviate that.

4th Line:

Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Noel Acciari

vs.

Leo Komarov - Tomas Plekanec - Kasperi Kapanen

• 5-on-5 Time on Ice:

377.57 minutes

vs.

22.7 minutes

• Overall Points:

(12g - 10a - 22pts) - (6g - 8a - 14pts) - (10g - 1a - 11pts)

vs.

(7g - 10g - 17pts) - (5g - 20a - 25pts) - (6g - 2a - 8pts)

• 5-on-5 Points:

(6g - 8a - 14pts) - (5g - 7a - 12pts) - (8g - 1a - 9pts)

vs.

(3g - 7a - 10pts) - (5g - 15a - 20pts) - (5g - 2a - 7pts)

• Individual Corsi-For%:

51.33% - 50.21% - 48.68%

vs.

45.13% - 51.35% - 50.74%

• Corsi-For% as a line:

51.08%

vs.

45.45%

Advantage: Boston, Boston, Boston again.

Reasoning: Leo Komarov and Kasperi Kapanen suuuuuuuuuuuuck. They might be fast, Plekanec might be a good defensive forward and they might have a better shot but together the only thing they do is suuuuuuuuuuck.

Of course, that’s just early returns. Sometimes they have Andreas Johnson on this line, and that slightly helps out. Any other version of this just gives you diminishing returns. Having to drag Komarov and Kapanen around just sucks the life out of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In fairness, the Bruins 4th line this year is so preoccupied with defense they’ll never exactly cause too much danger in front of Andersen, but the Leafs 4th line in comparison to the Bruins 4th line is like a Stouffers dinner next to a three day old Hungry Man meal. It’s not pretty.

Overall Advantage: Boston, however slightly.

The fan consensus is the following: “Toronto’s so fast! Toronto’s so skilled! Toronto’s got Matthews and Marner and Marleau” and blah blah blah you get the picture.

Under the hood? It seems that for all the calls for Boston being a one line team, Toronto seems to have a similar problem, except honestly a bit worse, as their players seem to experience dramatic drop offs in production at 5-on-5, with some exception.

Basically, don’t take dumb penalties? Control the puck long enough for your fellow man to get up ice? And the Leafs suddenly lose a lot of their punch. While Boston does lean heavily on it’s first line to produce, there’s enough scoring, defending and puck-moving talent here to make sure that the workload doesn’t immediately destroy the Bruins throughout this series. The same cannot be said of the Maple Leafs, who will desperately need the first two lines and their power play, whatever that may look like, to make up for serious deficiencies in their bottom 4.