Brad Marchand is as much an authority as anyone will ever be when it comes to facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs, so it’s particularly telling that he believes this year’s group is different from the past.
Marchand spent his entire career with the Boston Bruins, where he routinely played some of the best games of his career against the Leafs in the spring. The 36-year-old was acquired by the Florida Panthers at the trade deadline, and is a major component of their third line alongside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. Marchand is in unfamiliar territory beyond the jersey swap: Toronto holds a commanding 2-0 lead, leading the series in large part due to superior structure, coaching and transition offence.
“Their biggest threat is that they’re very good on the rush,” Marchand said following Game 2. “You got to be above them. It seemed like every time we gave them the opportunity to get above us, they created something or capitalized on it. It shows how dangerous they are. It doesn’t take much for them to score. We have to make sure we’re pretty much perfect on defensive coverage.”
Toronto has scorched Florida’s usually sound defensive corps in transition, with William Nylander leading the way. It extends beyond the stars as Max Pacioretty has caught fire during the playoffs, Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been a steady presence on the blue line all year, while deadline additions Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton are doing all the small things right for a Maple Leafs team that habitually underperformed in past summers.
“They’re continuing to get better and grow as a group. They brought a lot of good pieces in at the deadline, in the offseason, to kind of adjust their back end, they’re heavy back there. Obviously, their coaching has changed and their structure is very, very good right now, especially in the d-zone. They don’t give up a whole lot around the net. We knew it was going to be a really tough battle, we didn’t expect to roll over them by any means.”
Toronto has completely revamped its system under head coach Craig Berube, and the merits of playing ‘playoff hockey’ are being proved correct through the opening two rounds of the playoffs. Marchand has never lost to the Leafs during his postseason career, and the series will resume Friday, where the defending champions could be pushed to the brink, even with the veteran winger and a number of solid deadline additions of their own in tow.
