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Bruins vs. Maple Leafs PREVIEW: Game -4 of the 2020 Stanley Cup First Round is tonight!

Let’s beat a team in Blue and White by the end of this week!

By SkyonAir
Toronto Maple Leafs v Boston Bruins - Game Seven Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm

The Place: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Place to Watch: NESN, Sportsnet 1, CBC, NHL Network

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Opposing SBNation Blog: Perpetually Perturbed Puppets

Know your Enemy:

  • The leading goal-scorer for the Leafs is Auston Matthews, who has 7 goals in 8 games.
  • Morgan Reilly and Mitch Marner are their point leaders with 9 apiece.
  • Cody Ceci is on the other team, so no matter psychosis you have with a Bruins defender right now, take heart in knowing at least they aren’t as objectively bad at hockey as that pylon.
  • John Tavares is harm’d. Rest in Spaghetti.
  • Frederik Andersen is your starting goaltender for the Leafs, though their relationship with defense could be charitably referred to as “at arms length”, so don’t be super surprised he happens to have a sub .900 SV%. He has a .893% SV% in 6 starts.

Game Preview:

So I’m sure we can all put the 2019 playoffs behind us right?

No? Okay, let’s talk about these gormless lames once again.

The Leafs are in a bit of an early season crossroads as they’ve won some pretty convincing games by getting a whole mess of goals, but have also lost in truly brutal fashion to the team the B’s just lost to by the tune of 7-3, some other team in primarily blue sweaters that will go unmentioned, and most recently in an absolutely gruesome game against the Caps in which they lost their lead in 1:18 of real-game time. What’s resulted is a team that is just above .500, has some serious buyer’s remorse in some of their defense, a hurt captain who will be out for a bit, and a bunch of fans ready to trade Mitch Marner for having been paid all that money and only having three goals come out of it so far.

You truly hate to see it.

Of course, Boston has it’s own problems to deal with; secondary scoring as of right now effectively doesn’t exist within the 617 area code, and we’d really like it to in Krejci, Nordstrom, and possibly Bergeron’s absence, because otherwise we’re going to be begging and hoping the first line can do all the heavy lifting like they did...the last two or three games, actually.

Since this is now a fully fledged, heated rivalry, this game should be nothing short of a real benchmark moment for a bunch of the depth guys for the Black and Gold; there are a lot of goose eggs and 1-0-1 and 0-1-1’s in the statsheet for Boston and some of these guys need to start picking up the pace and adding some goals and assists to their resumes because if not, there are plenty of young, talented, hungry players and also Anders Bjork in Providence who are totally willing to take their place if they can’t get something going soon.

Let’s see how they respond to the pressure of Hockey Night in Canada!