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Mirtle: The Maple Leafs’ big offseason bet on John Tavares is why they’re beating the Bruins
By James Mirtle Apr 15, 2019 61
“That’s why you bring in Johnny.”
Zach Hyman said it, in the minutes after the Maple Leafs’ Game 3 win over the Bruins, and he didn’t need to explain.
After what had played out on the ice – a hard fought 3-2 win to give Toronto a 2-1 lead in the series – everyone knew what he was talking about.
He was talking about this:
A lot of Leafs fans probably don’t want to go down this particular memory lane, but I promise I’ll be brief.
Last year, the Bruins top line demolished Toronto in Round 1. David Pastrnak had 13 points in seven games. Brad Marchand had nine in seven. And Patrice Bergeron, who missed a game with injury, had eight in six.
Twenty-five of those 30 points came at even strength, where they continually hemmed the Leafs in their zone and cycled them into the ice, at home and on the road.
The fact that the Leafs didn’t have an answer for Boston’s three best forwards was, quite simply, the difference.
On July 1, 2018, they found their apparent answer. Because so far in this series, John Tavares has been worth every cent of his $11-million-a-season contract.
And likely more.
Most of the talk when Tavares signed was about his offence and that makes sense. He’s been one of the best goal scorers in the league since he entered it 10 years ago, and he put up a career-high 47 in his first season in Toronto.
He also assisted on the winner in Game 3, with a remarkable no-look pass out from the boards to Andreas Johnsson.
What we’re seeing more of against the Bruins, however, is Tavares’ impact on all 200 feet of the ice.
Three games in, Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak have combined for two even-strength points. Bergeron, who’s often their best player, has none.
Despite starting a huge share of their shifts in the offensive zone, that line has been kept in their end at 5-on-5 to the tune of only generating 42 percent of the shots on goal. In the minutes Bergeron has gone head-to-head with Tavares in this series, his possession is, similarly, only 42 percent. And he and his linemates have generated only 27 percent of the expected goals in those minutes.
Quality chances from the Bruins, in other words, have been almost nonexistent with their best players on the ice.
The Leafs head coach and his other players credit Tavares, more than anything else.
“The priority against them is to play real good players,” Mike Babcock explained of his team’s shutdown effort versus Boston’s top line. “That’s what we’re doing as a five-man unit.
“We have good players, too. And John is here now. We’ve got a veteran guy. He’s been around a while, and he’s gotten better and better and better defensively this year. And it shows.”
The two things everyone in the Leafs organization talks about with Tavares is his attention to detail and his work ethic. He is still trying to learn and get better, they say, even at 28 years old and after so many years in the league.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
He has improved the most in his own zone and his work through the neutral zone, in part thanks to the fact he has two strong skaters in Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner on his wings.
Never the fastest player on the ice, Tavares’ role at centre is about timing, positioning and hockey sense. It helps that he also isn’t afraid to eat a check along the glass to make a play and advance the puck, something we saw again and again in Game 3.
Come down low. Retrieve the puck. Help the D. Make an outlet pass. Catch up to the play.
None of it is particularly noticeable or sexy. It’s not the $11-million stuff, and it won’t be on the highlight pack after the game. But Tavares’ willingness to do it all – and to work to get better at it, in the confines of a new system and with new teammates – has made that one of the league’s best lines all season.
“He’s got tons of skill. He’s known for his touch and his hands in tight. But the thing that separates him from any other player is just how hard he works,” Hyman explained. “He works as if he doesn’t have that skill. When you combine that with the skill set he has, you get Johnny.
“He’s an elite player. It’s fun playing with him because when you’re with him you can play against anybody in the league and matchup.”
The Leafs didn’t have that last year, and they wouldn’t have it right now if they hadn’t signed Tavares in free agency. Derek Ryan, now with the Flames, was going to be their fallback option. While Ryan is a competent third-line centre on a good team, he wouldn’t be nearly the game changer against the Bruins that Tavares is proving to be.
(For fun, I asked our resident stats guru Dom Luszczyszyn to run the numbers on the Leafs’ chances in this series with Ryan in the lineup instead of Tavares. He calculated that Toronto would have only a 45 percent chance of beating the Bruins, prior to Game 1, in that scenario, compared to 51 percent with Tavares. For what that is worth.)
The addition of Tavares has been even more vital here now that Nazem Kadri has been suspended for the series, as Toronto’s centre depth will be tested far more.
It’s plausible that the Bruins will be able to better capitalize when they get the matchups they want back in Boston, as the two sheltered lines centred by William Nylander and Frederik Gauthier will still get their roughly 20 minutes a night. Those can be minutes where coach Bruce Cassidy gets his most dangerous players on the ice and hopes to generate more offence.
But because the Leafs won Game 1 at TD Garden, they no longer need to win another game in Boston. If Tavares’ line continues to win the matchup at home, to the extent that the Bergeron line is a non-factor, they should be able to take Games 4 and 6 in Toronto.
That would be enough to win the series.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
But Toronto’s top line may continue to be a factor in Boston, as well. Part of what makes Hyman-Tavares-Marner an effective counterweight to Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak is they are almost impossible to be goaded into any of Marchand’s extracurricular nonsense.
Tavares, in particular, acts as though Marchand ceases to exist when the whistle blows and robotically returns to the bench.
That’s part of the Leafs strategy this year to make Boston’s star pest less effective.
“It’s hard to get under his skin,” Hyman said of Tavares. “I don’t think I’ve seen anybody really get under his skin all year. He frustrates people with how hard he works and how hard he is on the puck and how strong he is on the puck. That’s more frustrating than somebody chirping you. When you can’t play against a guy like that and you’re turning the puck over and you can’t get the puck off a guy like that? That’s more frustrating than anything that somebody can say.”
Because of the way he plays and his experience, Tavares has emerged as a mentor to some of the Leafs young forwards. Hyman and Marner have obviously learned a lot, playing alongside him, but so have others on other lines, including Trevor Moore, who scored the Leafs’ opening goal on Monday.
Recalled in midseason to play on the fourth line, Moore has been blown away by the interactions he has had with Tavares so far.
“He’s a guy that everyone can look up to,” Moore said. “I try not to just go up there (to his stall) with a notepad. But you go pick his brain all the time. Anytime you can get insight from him, it’s huge.”
“He’s just leading,” Morgan Rielly added when asked what he’d seen from Tavares. “I think he’s doing a great job.”
After the streetfight that was Game 2, the Leafs organization – and GM Kyle Dubas, in particular – took some heat in Toronto. All day on Monday, talk radio and social media lit up with conversations about whether the Leafs were tough enough to battle a team like the Bruins and if management had made mistakes in how they built this roster.
But the two biggest additions Dubas has made in his 11 months on the job – Tavares and Jake Muzzin – were both on the ice for almost every single minute against the Bergeron line in Game 3.
The Leafs had the puck an awful lot of that time. And they looked plenty tough when they needed to get it back and start heading back down the ice.
They also looked like two key members of a club that has an excellent chance to win this series.
By James Mirtle Apr 15, 2019 61
“That’s why you bring in Johnny.”
Zach Hyman said it, in the minutes after the Maple Leafs’ Game 3 win over the Bruins, and he didn’t need to explain.
After what had played out on the ice – a hard fought 3-2 win to give Toronto a 2-1 lead in the series – everyone knew what he was talking about.
He was talking about this:
A lot of Leafs fans probably don’t want to go down this particular memory lane, but I promise I’ll be brief.
Last year, the Bruins top line demolished Toronto in Round 1. David Pastrnak had 13 points in seven games. Brad Marchand had nine in seven. And Patrice Bergeron, who missed a game with injury, had eight in six.
Twenty-five of those 30 points came at even strength, where they continually hemmed the Leafs in their zone and cycled them into the ice, at home and on the road.
The fact that the Leafs didn’t have an answer for Boston’s three best forwards was, quite simply, the difference.
On July 1, 2018, they found their apparent answer. Because so far in this series, John Tavares has been worth every cent of his $11-million-a-season contract.
And likely more.
Most of the talk when Tavares signed was about his offence and that makes sense. He’s been one of the best goal scorers in the league since he entered it 10 years ago, and he put up a career-high 47 in his first season in Toronto.
He also assisted on the winner in Game 3, with a remarkable no-look pass out from the boards to Andreas Johnsson.
What we’re seeing more of against the Bruins, however, is Tavares’ impact on all 200 feet of the ice.
Three games in, Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak have combined for two even-strength points. Bergeron, who’s often their best player, has none.
Despite starting a huge share of their shifts in the offensive zone, that line has been kept in their end at 5-on-5 to the tune of only generating 42 percent of the shots on goal. In the minutes Bergeron has gone head-to-head with Tavares in this series, his possession is, similarly, only 42 percent. And he and his linemates have generated only 27 percent of the expected goals in those minutes.
Quality chances from the Bruins, in other words, have been almost nonexistent with their best players on the ice.
The Leafs head coach and his other players credit Tavares, more than anything else.
“The priority against them is to play real good players,” Mike Babcock explained of his team’s shutdown effort versus Boston’s top line. “That’s what we’re doing as a five-man unit.
“We have good players, too. And John is here now. We’ve got a veteran guy. He’s been around a while, and he’s gotten better and better and better defensively this year. And it shows.”
The two things everyone in the Leafs organization talks about with Tavares is his attention to detail and his work ethic. He is still trying to learn and get better, they say, even at 28 years old and after so many years in the league.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
He has improved the most in his own zone and his work through the neutral zone, in part thanks to the fact he has two strong skaters in Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner on his wings.
Never the fastest player on the ice, Tavares’ role at centre is about timing, positioning and hockey sense. It helps that he also isn’t afraid to eat a check along the glass to make a play and advance the puck, something we saw again and again in Game 3.
Come down low. Retrieve the puck. Help the D. Make an outlet pass. Catch up to the play.
None of it is particularly noticeable or sexy. It’s not the $11-million stuff, and it won’t be on the highlight pack after the game. But Tavares’ willingness to do it all – and to work to get better at it, in the confines of a new system and with new teammates – has made that one of the league’s best lines all season.
“He’s got tons of skill. He’s known for his touch and his hands in tight. But the thing that separates him from any other player is just how hard he works,” Hyman explained. “He works as if he doesn’t have that skill. When you combine that with the skill set he has, you get Johnny.
“He’s an elite player. It’s fun playing with him because when you’re with him you can play against anybody in the league and matchup.”
The Leafs didn’t have that last year, and they wouldn’t have it right now if they hadn’t signed Tavares in free agency. Derek Ryan, now with the Flames, was going to be their fallback option. While Ryan is a competent third-line centre on a good team, he wouldn’t be nearly the game changer against the Bruins that Tavares is proving to be.
(For fun, I asked our resident stats guru Dom Luszczyszyn to run the numbers on the Leafs’ chances in this series with Ryan in the lineup instead of Tavares. He calculated that Toronto would have only a 45 percent chance of beating the Bruins, prior to Game 1, in that scenario, compared to 51 percent with Tavares. For what that is worth.)
The addition of Tavares has been even more vital here now that Nazem Kadri has been suspended for the series, as Toronto’s centre depth will be tested far more.
It’s plausible that the Bruins will be able to better capitalize when they get the matchups they want back in Boston, as the two sheltered lines centred by William Nylander and Frederik Gauthier will still get their roughly 20 minutes a night. Those can be minutes where coach Bruce Cassidy gets his most dangerous players on the ice and hopes to generate more offence.
But because the Leafs won Game 1 at TD Garden, they no longer need to win another game in Boston. If Tavares’ line continues to win the matchup at home, to the extent that the Bergeron line is a non-factor, they should be able to take Games 4 and 6 in Toronto.
That would be enough to win the series.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
But Toronto’s top line may continue to be a factor in Boston, as well. Part of what makes Hyman-Tavares-Marner an effective counterweight to Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak is they are almost impossible to be goaded into any of Marchand’s extracurricular nonsense.
Tavares, in particular, acts as though Marchand ceases to exist when the whistle blows and robotically returns to the bench.
That’s part of the Leafs strategy this year to make Boston’s star pest less effective.
“It’s hard to get under his skin,” Hyman said of Tavares. “I don’t think I’ve seen anybody really get under his skin all year. He frustrates people with how hard he works and how hard he is on the puck and how strong he is on the puck. That’s more frustrating than somebody chirping you. When you can’t play against a guy like that and you’re turning the puck over and you can’t get the puck off a guy like that? That’s more frustrating than anything that somebody can say.”
Because of the way he plays and his experience, Tavares has emerged as a mentor to some of the Leafs young forwards. Hyman and Marner have obviously learned a lot, playing alongside him, but so have others on other lines, including Trevor Moore, who scored the Leafs’ opening goal on Monday.
Recalled in midseason to play on the fourth line, Moore has been blown away by the interactions he has had with Tavares so far.
“He’s a guy that everyone can look up to,” Moore said. “I try not to just go up there (to his stall) with a notepad. But you go pick his brain all the time. Anytime you can get insight from him, it’s huge.”
“He’s just leading,” Morgan Rielly added when asked what he’d seen from Tavares. “I think he’s doing a great job.”
After the streetfight that was Game 2, the Leafs organization – and GM Kyle Dubas, in particular – took some heat in Toronto. All day on Monday, talk radio and social media lit up with conversations about whether the Leafs were tough enough to battle a team like the Bruins and if management had made mistakes in how they built this roster.
But the two biggest additions Dubas has made in his 11 months on the job – Tavares and Jake Muzzin – were both on the ice for almost every single minute against the Bergeron line in Game 3.
The Leafs had the puck an awful lot of that time. And they looked plenty tough when they needed to get it back and start heading back down the ice.
They also looked like two key members of a club that has an excellent chance to win this series.
