NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 5, 2024
The Bruins eliminated the Maple Leafs from the first round again, the second round schedule for the Eastern Conference is released, the Lady Byng Trophy finalists are revealed, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The Boston Bruins advanced to the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their first-round series. David Pastrnak scored in overtime to send his team into a second-round showdown with the Florida Panthers, who eliminated the Bruins from the first round of the 2023 playoffs. Hampus Lindholm tied the game for the Bruins after the Leafs’ William Nylander opened the scoring midway through the third period.
Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (NHL Images).
Auston Matthews collected an assist as he returned to the Leafs lineup after missing two games with an undisclosed illness. Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves for the Leafs as he replaced Joseph Woll, who was injured in Game 6. Jeremy Swayman stopped 30 shots for the Bruins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Swayman was the hero of this series for the Bruins. He played in six of the seven games, sporting a 1.49 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage, giving up two goals or less in five of those contests. Pastrnak was challenged to step up his game by Bruins coach Jim Montgomery following Game 6 and responded with what has to be the biggest goal of his NHL career.
The Leafs deserve kudos for overcoming a 3-1 series deficit but the final result remains the same. Since 2017, they’ve been eliminated from the first round in seven of eight postseason series. Five of those series went seven games, three against the Bruins, whom they haven’t beaten in a playoff series since 1959.
Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov faced justified criticism over his shaky play earlier in this series but cannot be faulted for their Game 7 loss. He was steady throughout, giving the Leafs a chance to win. Samsonov is an unrestricted free agent this summer and won’t be re-signed but his final game as a Leaf gave him a bit of redemption.
The calls for change from Leafs Nations cannot be ignored. It started last year with the replacement of Kyle Dubas as general manager. There will be more significant moves to come. I’ll have more on this topic in the Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup.
NBC SPORTS BOSTON: The Bruins made NHL history with 16 Game 7 victories. They also appeared in a league-record 31 Game 7s’.
NHL.COM: The Eastern Conference second-round playoff schedule was announced following the Bruins-Leafs game. The Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers face off starting at 4 pm EDT on Sunday, May 5. The Bruins meet the Florida Panthers starting Monday, May 6, at 8 pm ET.
Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews, Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin are this year’s finalists for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s most gentlemanly player.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Congratulations to the three finalists. This is the first time Pettersson has been a finalist. It’s the third in five years for Matthews and the third time in four years for Slavin.
SPORTSNET: Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce will miss the first two games of his team’s second-round series against the Rangers. He’s been sidelined by a lower-body injury since Game 2 of the Hurricanes’ first-round series against the New York Islanders.
Another tight game as expected with both goalies making big saves to keep their team in it. Can’t get much closer than a 3rd straight 2-1 game, and another one in OT, with both preceding goals in this one scored in the 3rd period,
And maybe now some of those Bruins fans in here will cut Lindholm some slack.
That Bruins tying goal in the 3rd was a bit of a “weird” one (for wont of a better word) – for a split second on the shot that preceded it, everyone seemed to think that the first shot had gone in and there was just enough let up to allow the Bruins player to fire that follow-up shot. At least, that’s the way it looked from here.
I’ve never had a problem with Lindholm. Signing him long term was a smart move imo. I would have been disappointed if the Bruins had lost the series after being up 3-1 and they barely managed to hang on. As for the next series against Florida, I think they are in trouble. The Panthers have improved since last year and the Bruins have regressed since they have not replaced the offense lost when Bergeron and Krejci retired…
Can a player drive you more crazy and then win you over than Pasta?This series should prove to Leaf management that you win with defensive structure and goaltending and they almost pulled it off! This should be the end of the Core 4! One of them was beat badly to the net on Pasta s winning goal!
Marner needs to go. I dunno know how, but I do know when…..ASAP.
Defensive structure and goaltending give teams a chance to win but the best teams score goals too.
Big changes coming to the Leafs, according to many.
Sure hope they find a coach that can fix the power play.
For what it’s worth, the only Leafs player to be minus 2 on the night was Rielly. But on the winning goal – from this vantage point anyway – he was put in an awkward position when Marner failed to impede Pastrnak’s speed towards the net.
Just a guess, but I’d bet ot will eventually come out that Marner was still suffering the effects of that late-season high ankle sprain, limiting his mobility.
George O, he seemed to have plenty of speed when he went on offense! Doesn t almost any player have some sort of injury this time of year? Don t you think Pasternak is nicked up?
No doubt, Sr … but I’m referring to a specific injury and unless you’ve suffered a high ankle sprain you can’t appreciate how it limits some – but not all – aspects of your mobility depending upon the angle at which you attempt to “push off” – t hey take a LONG time to heal properly and if you attempt to return to action before it’s 100% you will lose some mobility.
Agreed, George. And then the effect on the series of Matthews and Nylander’s health issues as well.
Their three best offensive players all with some form of incapacity really hurt their chances against a B’s team that looked ripe for the picking.
Their other round one losses came about through lack of ability to rise to the occasion, a reflection of character.
This round the team showed character and the injury bug bit them.
Another was a pylon, standing upright… seemingly not interested in the dump-in/pass through the neutral zone… didn’t even think of trying to get a stick on it to deflect the puck (because he didn’t look engaged and didn’t look like he was even trying to read the play)… then took one lazy stride from the blue line and glided towards the net. This in a Game 7 OT situation.
Fitting.
Great Game last night with the Leafs & Bruins
-Willie Nylander, 3 Goals in 4 games was the diffrence make out of the Core 4….
if he was playing in all 7 game’s….🤔
-Austin Mathews 4 points in 5 games
if he was playing in all 7 games
-Tavares 2 points in 7 games ❗️
-Mitch Marrnier was MIA…. 3 points in 7 games got LOTS of ice time played Very Poorlyđź‘Ž
This group of 4 cant get it done, the last 8 years they got past the 1st round once Time to change it up
Trade Marnier Now at the draft, Add a top 4 offencive d/man Spend the $11.M Wisely
on the re-tool đź‘Ť
Tavares has 1 year left at $11.M,
He wont wave his NTC, if he want to come backafter the over payed contract is done, bring him back at $3.M per for 1 year or just move on and name a
New Captain
đź‘Ť
I felt bad for the Maple Leafs, it seemed to me as well that Marner fell asleep on the winning goal against? That’s not a guy you want to lose track of. In my mind at least do something to impede his progress toward the goal, then if he beats you well tip your cap but he totally looked unaware. By then, it was too late for Reilly to do anything with that speed and skill. I would have liked to maybe see Samsonov maybe poke check that effort but it all happens so fast perhaps he couldn’t, I don’t know? I thought overall, Toronto was better but you have to give Swayman credit, he kept everything out
Nice effort for the Leafs to come back when everyone counted them out after they went down 3-1. But as Lyle pointed out, the results are the same and that’s all that matters. A loss in 4 and a loss in 7 are still both losses. This core cannot get it done.
For those of you calling for Marner to be traded, remember that he has a full NMC. He’s going nowhere without his consent. Nothing is impossible but a trade would be difficult. He would obviously want to go where he has a chance to win. Whoever would trade for him would want to have an extension in place and the contenders may have a hard time fitting in his cap hit. The Leafs certainly can’t afford to lose him for nothing next year.
Does the fact that the Leafs battled back and came close to taking the series provide Keefe with a reprieve. I don’t think it should. What say you Leafs Nation?
BCLeaf Fan, no doubt there will be calls for the sacking of Keefe, in addition to finding someone who can put together an effective pp.
But is it really fair to put all the blame on Keefe? I mean, he had to put together lines and D combinations with the players handed to him by upper management, who control the all-important cap spending.
No one can argue that Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares and Rielly are not all in the league upper echelon of offensive talent. But, in “paying them what they’re worth” – as the popular sentiment goes – it also severely limited gathering the talent to make their lines 3 and 4 playoff and D structure competitive.
As a consequence, the opposition need only develop a game plan to keep the Core 4 in check and take their chances with the bottom 2 lines.
There were 7 games played in this series, including OTs, and the Leafs scored a grand total of 12 goals while giving up 18 by the less-offensively-blessed Bruins.
The top 2 lines for the Bruins finished with 11g 14a 25 pts while the top 2 Leafs lines had 9g 10a 19 pts.
The bottom two Bruins lines had5g 6a 11 pts while the Leafs bottom 2 had 2g 4a 6 pts
The Bruins D contributed 2g 10a 12 pts and the Leafs their D chipped in with 1g 8a 9 pts.
If Keefe loses his job it will be a pure “scapegoat” decision. I just can’t see ANY coach being able to put together line combinations and D pairings given the roster limitations dictated by having 62% of the cap confined to 5 players, as will be the case next season when new salaries kick in in a few cases (totalling $54,153,000) and the cap rises to $87,700,000.
George, no one says life is fair and I agree that Keefe is a good coach but he is also responsible for his assistants and the Toronto power play down the stretch and into the playoffs was simply awful.
I remember fondly when Mitch Marner arrived in the NHL and it was a joy to watch him play. He seems to be the primary target now and it’s sad.
Pro sports has a way sometimes of just wearing people down. So does the salary cap – the first question now seems to be not how good the player is but rather how much does he make. If signing Marner to his current contract is a huge mistake, who’s fault is that? Not Marner’s imo.
Anyway, that’s life and there’s always next year…..
No, that contract sure wasn’t Marner’s fault – nor was it Keefes though.
I have to get a kick out of all the calls to “trade Marner … trade Tavares …” as if finding takers for two $11 mil cap hits who will be UFAs after next season is as easy as picking up the phone.
Heading into the off-season, Treleving has Bertuzzi (NMC), Domi (M-NTC), Kampf (M-NTC), Jarnkrok (M-NTC), Reaves 35+, Giordano 35+, Rielly (NMC), Brodie (M NTC), McCabe (RS M-NTC) and Edmundson (RS M-NTC).
It’s going to be fascinating to watch it all unfold.
George, Bertuzzi, Domi, Brodie and Edmondson are all UFAs, so their clauses mean nothing now. Most if not all of them won’t be back
George, 5 of those players – Bertuzzi Domi, Giordano, Brodie and Edmundson are UFAs.
Maybe Domi & Edmunson will be re-signed. Bertuzzi is unaffordable unless he accepts a massive haircut on his next contract.
I get that some – maybe all – of the UFAs won’t be back … but where are they going to find adequate replacements? Certainly not within their minor league reserves.
And not all of the better UFAs will be lining up to join the Leafs and, even if the top ones are interested, their cost per will be no better than the ones departing … perhaps even more depending upon who it is.
Good Morning, Good morning, how’s everyone on this lovely Sunday morning.
Swayman is going to get paid. His goals against in 6 games played; 1,2,1,2,2,1 and two of them were losses. Swayman is the reason Boston is heading to round two.
Don’t know what would’ve happen if the leafs had a healthy Matthews and Nylander. But i will say with Matthews out the line of Bertuzzie, Domi and Nylander was the best line on either team.
Kind of reminded me of last year when Bergeron and Krejci were out, the made up lines of Coyle and Zacha played the best hockey, then Bergeron came back and Boston lost all 3 games.
That Pastrnak goal definitely looked like a set play. Lindholm his best game in a long time. Hopefully gives him confidence going forward.
Lohrie looks like a guy who going be a top 4 dman in this league and the reason the Bruins didn’t need Hanafin.
Not quite sure what’s going on with McAvoy but his isn’t playing with any confidence and making some bad decision, also carelessly losing the puck.
Round two is reset time. I know, i heard it “Bruins are going out in 4”. This is why we play the games.
Leaf’s have some off season decisions to make. I think they should stay the course. It will be different next season.
caper, with 62% of their increased cap gobbled up by 5 players next season, how, exactly, will it be different with just 38% available to cover 18 players?
Even evenly-divided. that works out to an average of $1,851,444 per player. But, of course, they have 4 RFAs to deal with and 8 UFAs and even if they were to walk away from players like Bertuzzi $5 mil) and Domi ($3 mil), where exactly are they going to find better – and cheaper replacements? And, of course, re-signing one or the other, will cost as much or more. And that’s just two of their 12 free agents.
Houdini perhaps?
They’re going to have to wait until the 2025-26 season and hope they made good moves with the freed up cash.
2 D-men
Goalie
Fries and coke to go please.
And a new coach… I’d hire Sutter if he has any interest. This team needs a hard kick in the butt.
Their draft picks the next couple years… pretty much non-existent.
OUCH!
Ray Bark, yes Lohrei made mistakes and McAvoy bailed him out.
McAvoy himself made mistakes that Swayman had to bail him out.
Unfortunately there was one huge mistake McAvoy made that no one bailed him out including himself.
Game 6 he iced the puck with little pressure on him. Team was 37% on the faceoff dot. On the draw Boston losses, Nylander ends up scoring on a deflection off McAvoy.
McAvoy need to be better and consistent he was not at his best in this series, too many turnovers, to many times skated over the puck, no many times shot blocked or took himself out of a shooting position. When he plays physical he seem to be more engaged.
Lohrei, is an element the Bruins just don’t have, a puck moving dman, with vision and creativity. he needs to play stronger on the puck and better in the dzone. Lohrei will not be sitting for Grizz to get in the lineup.
I think the top 3 D along with Swayman are the reasons the B’s won this series.
Lindholm and Carlo (toe pick aside), did their job as a shut down pair exceptionally well. They spent some time in their own end during the series, but somewhat expected considering their task. But, they defended the house, and did it well. Outstanding on the PK.
Lohrie is long, can move, and has good hands and offensive instincts, but he also made quite a few mistakes, which is exactly what you would expect given his lack of experience. 2 of those were glaring, and McAvoy saved his ass, and the team’s with his great reads, wheels & mobility. Which is why they put him with Lohrie. Just like the put Chara with McAvoy when he was a rook. But agree, Lohrie looks like he could be a player. Charlie handed out some solid hits too. He’s a great player.
The B’s won the only way we all thought they could. Quality D, with great tending.
On to Florida! Will need to be even better
The Bruins move on in spite of their coach. He needs to go. He can’t make up his mind on lineups. Calls out his players unnecessarily (Pasta). The last three games he has made that lineup soooo slow. No team speed at all. That second team PP unit was atrocious. Luckily they didn’t cause a shorty. This coach can’t get out of his own way. He is soooo over his head in the playoffs. I bet we find out Pasta is playing with an injury, you can see it in his face.
Did I read Maple Leafs now lost seven straight game sevens?
Speed Kills, this from the Web
“It was the Maple Leafs’ fourth straight loss in a Game 7 against the Bruins (2013, 2018, 2019) and sixth straight overall (2013, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022). They also lost the deciding Game 5 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
I was just thinking if anyone else sees a Marner/Gaudreau comparison?
Great players getting paid big bucks but fall short pushing through tough games. I know Marner has 1 more year left and Gaudreau was FA but I can see a similar path forming here.
Marner gets moved to Utah for a nice package of players and draft picks. He then signs a big extension and lives the rest of his hockey career in relative obscurity.
Just a thought.
Does Gaudreau kill penalties?
Without Swayman Boston is toast
There is that. But that’s also why the game calls for a goaltending position – and those with the best at their trade usually go the farthest. How many games/series has Vasilevsky stolen for Tampa in the past?
Congrats to Bruins. Made my day (and in OT to boot).
The juggernaut Toronto media can put whatever spin they want on this (“so close”, “almost there”, “if this”, “if that”; “just a tweak and next year….”)but the jig is up. They can’t continue as is.
How it’s done is a TBD.
The big 4 all have NMCs. How are they going to convince one of them to waive? Can they realistically (would they realistically) buy out either Tavares or Marner (both only with 1 year left)?? No way…. Tavares buyout nets just $0.6 M in Cap Savings; Marner only $0.5 M
How do they incentivize either Tavares or Marner to waive to leave their home town?
Besides that, even if they get either to agree to waive; zero teams take either without a substantial (likely 50%) retention and/or a big bonus asset (or assets) in the trade.