Toronto Maple Leafs Facing Tension and Pressure in Conference Semifinals Against Boston Bruins

On Wednesday night, Boston’s TD Garden could already celebrate moving on to the conference semifinals. Unless something big happens, it’s also very likely. Toronto’s biggest stars look casual and the pressure is wearing them down. At 0-3 the growing fear was evident.

Disappointing leading scorer Auston Matthews, who scored the only goal of the playoffs, began talking to his teammates after a failed attempt to set up an offense, Nylander immediately spoke up, and Mitch Marner threw both his gloves away in anger immediately. Not surprisingly, the Maple Leafs’ performance on Saturday was nothing short of spectacular.

But Marner himself and coach Sheldon Keefe denied that there was tension in the cabin, even though the season hangs in the balance.

“I don’t think there is any harassment. We are adults. We are just talking about our events and we want to make sure they are 100 percent. And then it was just a little out of order. We don’t yell at each other because we hate each other somehow,” said Marner, who finished Toronto’s only goal.

“I don’t feel any disappointment among them. The boys push each other, they are competitive, they want to win. That’s all part of it,” Keefe said. “We expect a lot from each other and we like each other. We push each other, we have a high bar, which I think is great, ” said Nylander, who missed the first three games of the series because of a migraine, but did not make an impact in 22 and a half minutes on the ice in his return.

When Toronto conceded the third goal in the 40th minute from the stick of David Pastrňák after a perfect action by Brad Marchand, boos accompanied the Maple Leafs players leaving for the booths. In addition, Matthews did not return for the third period, as he did not finish the match due to symptoms of chronic illness.

“Brad is everywhere, he scores, he sacrifices in the fade. He is our captain who leads us in the right direction,” suggested Pastrňák Marchand, who rose with his 56th career goal in the playoffs to the top of the club’s all-time list.

Anyway, Boston is on a good roll right now. Over the weekend, he bet again on goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman, and even thanks to his 24 saves, he won the seventh of eight games with the Maple Leafs in the regular season. Since Toronto, he has surrendered just seven times in four playoff games, including just once in a loss.

But the Bruins remain cautious. They certainly do not want to allow a repeat of last year’s situation, when they led 3-1 after two games in the opening round in Florida and still did not progress. “We know how talented the Maple Leafs are offensively. You can’t give them much because they can threaten you out of seemingly nowhere. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us in the next game and we have to be ready for it,” said Marchand.