The best thing about the first round of the NHL playoffs is
that there are multiple games of high intensity hockey on every night. Also,
there is always one major upset that embarrasses multitudes of pundits and
players alike.
Every year, a team that is highly superior by both talent
and quality and lauded by analysts as the strong favourites, falls calamously
to a weaker rival.
These heavy favourites who bow out to their inferior
opponents are later described as having choked, folded under pressure, lacking
heart, lacking desire, lacking drive, or as the French would say, shitting the
bed.
The surprising winners however, are later epitomized as the
year’s ‘Cinderella’ team (I wish there was a better analogy for this. I can
appreciate that the Cinderella theme indicates a protagonist who accomplishes something
extraordinary against all odds, but I just don’t think it’s appropriate to associate
Disney princesses with sports).
In most cases, these underdogs (a much better analogy in my
mind) proceed deep into the playoffs driven by the priceless momentum they
gather in eliminating a stronger foe, while everyone expected them to falter
and be an easy stepping stone into later rounds. They acquire a ‘nothing to
lose’ attitude making them incredibly difficult to play against as they become
the ‘dark horse’ of the tournament – yet another sports analogy that’s is often
used but rarely explained.
Last year’s ‘Cinderella’ team, or dark horse if you will, was
the eighth seeded Los Angeles Kings who beat the heavily favoured first seeded
Vancouver Canucks in the first round, on their way to winning the Stanley Cup
against the New Jersey Devils.
I predict that this year’s dark horse, or team most like a
Disney princess, will be the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs head into their first post-season in 9 years as
underdogs against the heavily favoured Boston Bruins.
Boston are being touted by the vast majority of news
outlets, hockey analysts, and pretty much everyone outside Toronto without a
vested interest in the Leafs, as the heavy favourites to advance from this
opening round series for several reasons.
The Bruins beat the Leafs in this season’s head-to-head 3
games to 1, outscoring Toronto 10-7. In fact, the Leafs have been dismal over
the last three years against Boston, winning at the TD Center only a couple of
times and being heavily dominated in every stat throughout that duration.
The Bruins are also stronger on paper in every position.
To begin with, Tuuka Rask is deemed a better goalie than the
unproven James Reimer, even though the latter has been hot of late and has
shown solid consistency throughout the year.
Boston’s defence edges Toronto’s blue line core with the
mere presence of gargantuan, perennial Norris Trophy candidate Zdeno Chara who
also looks like ‘My Giant’ star and former Washington Bullets center – Gheorge
Muresan.
Up front, the Bruins outnumber their counterparts in skill,
speed, and power with the likes of Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin,
Jaromir Jagr, Brad Marchand, and David Krejci.
Although the Leafs have shown a surprising amount of
offensive flair this year, their depth throughout 4 lines does not match that
of the Bruins. It must also be noted that since being traded from Boston to
Toronto, Phil Kessel – arguably the Leafs most potent forward – has performed
horrendously against his former club, scoring 3 goals with 6 assists against
them in 22 games, giving him the perfect opportunity to stick it to his former
employers, or to simply not surprise anyone and continue his crappy play
against the Bruins.
Arguably the largest obstacle facing the Leafs is their lack
of playoff experience.
The Leafs bolster a relatively young, inexperienced squad
where the majority hasn’t even had the chance to get nervous before a
post-season game.
The Bruins on the other hand, are entering the 2013
post-season with the core of their 2011 Stanley Cup winning team still in-tact
– they know the level of intensity that is necessary; they know what type of
emotion to expect; they know what it takes to win.
However, like in many cases, when a team favours another so
heavily, it is very easy to become dangerously complacent and unprepared.
The 2013 edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs is very
different from the teams that Boston dominated the two prior seasons to this
one. 2013 saw a much closer head-to-head matchup than previous years.
Moreover, what Toronto may lack in playoff experience, they
may make up for in youth and drive. They are untested, yet hungry without much
to lose – not unlike the aforementioned mystical ‘dark horse’.
This year they boast a physically dominating team who led
the league in fighting majors and hits. They are a team who others don’t like
to play against. This has not been the case with previous Leaf squads built
around small forwards and defencemen who only hit the post-game buffet spread.
They may not be the NHL’s elite club, yet they are a team
built around big bodies who like to be physical, play sound defense, and can
still beat you with their speed and fast hands up front.
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