Bruins-Leafs takeaways: Swayman, DeBrusk shine in B’s 5-1 Game 1 win

Bruins-Leafs takeaways: Swayman, DeBrusk shine in B’s 5-1 Game 1 win originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

BOSTON – It’s a new year, but the same Toronto Maple Leafs showed up at TD Garden for Game 1 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Bruins.

The Bruins swept the four-game regular season series against the Leafs and opened the first round with a dominant 5-1 victory on Saturday night.

Boston opened the game in the second period with three goals, increasing its lead to 4-0. That was too big a deficit to overcome, even for a high-powered offensive team like the Leafs.

The stars of the game for the Bruins were Jake DeBrusk and Jeremy Swayman. DeBrusk scored twice on the power play and Swayman made 35 saves.

Brandon Carlo, John Beecher and Trent Frederic (empty net) also scored for Boston.

The Bruins haven’t lost a single second against the Leafs this season, and the last time Toronto won at TD Garden was March 29, 2022.

Game 2 is Monday night at TD Garden with the album release scheduled for 7pm ET. But before we look at that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Leafs Game 1.

The fourth line makes a strong impact

The Bruins used a John Beecher-Jesper Boqvist-Pat Maroon fourth line to start the series, and this trio played very well.

The offensive impact was immediate as Beecher opened the scoring with his first career playoff goal just 2:26 into the period. Beecher took a nice feed from Boqvist on a 2-on-1 run and beat Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov.

Boqvist and Maroon got assists on the play.

Shortly after the goal, Maroon absolutely leveled Timothy Liljegren with a massive hit this sent the Leafs defenseman flying to the Bruins bench.

Maroon threw his weight around early and often. The 6-foot-2, 234-pound forward was credited with six hits. The fourth line as a whole combined for 10 shots and consistently made the Leafs work to establish themselves on the ice. Overall, Boston was the more physical team in Game 1, and the fourth line led the offense.

The Leafs entered this series with better scoring depth than the Bruins. Toronto scored the second-most goals of any team in the regular season and owned the seventh-best power play. The Bruins need their bottom six to make an offensive impact and match the Leafs’ firepower. So far, so good for the Bs in that regard.

Bruins win special teams battle

Special teams often play a key role in the playoffs, and that was the case in Game 1.

The Bruins’ power play struggled late in the regular season, with a 10.5 percent success rate over the last two weeks ranking 30th out of 32 teams during that span. Boston’s power play found its groove again on Saturday with two goals, both scored by DeBrusk in the second period.

The Bruins now have five power play goals in five games against the Leafs this season, including Game 1. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Bruins continue to take advantage of the power play because the Leafs are not a good penalty killing team. Toronto’s PK ranked 23rd in the regular season.

The Leafs’ power play ranked 7th with a 24 percent success rate in the regular season, but the unit was unable to capitalize on any of its three opportunities in Game 1. Not only were the Leafs unable to score with the advantage of man, they failed to generate a single shot or scoring chance in those minutes.

The Leafs have no chance of winning this series if the Bruins win the special teams battle by such a lopsided margin.

Swayman shines on the net

The Bruins decided to give Jeremy Swayman his first career Game 1 startand the 25-year-old goalkeeper played fantastically.

He made 11 saves in the first period, including an excellent left stop on a Grade A scoring chance from low position. Beecher put the B’s ahead 1-0 just a few minutes later.

Swayman was even better in the second period, making 13 saves, including a couple of clutch stops during a Leafs power play early in the frame.

In total, Swayman made 35 saves on 36 shots. The Leafs were able to overcome Swayman early in the third period when David Kampf got his team on the board. Plus, it was a perfect match for Swayman, who picked up his fourth career playoff victory.

It will be interesting to see if the Bruins use a goaltending rotation in this series and start Linus Ullmark in Game 2. The B’s had a lot of success using a rotation during the regular season. That said, Swayman is now 4-0-0 with a .973 save percentage in four matchups against the Leafs this season. It might be difficult to get Swayman out of the net with those numbers.