BOSTON — They planned to chip away at the Boston Bruins foundation the old fashioned way, by skating through Zdeno Chara and getting behind him for stretch passes and hitting him at every opportunity.
But never did the Toronto Maple Leafs expect to have so much success so quickly against the big man, who looked more like someone trying to direct traffic than halt it in Game 1 of this first-round series.
That Chara, at age 42, is still considered a top shutdown option for Bruce Cassidy is a miracle of sports science. The left-shot defender finds himself under particular duress when lining up across from the Leafs, who are built on speed and elusiveness and tilted heavily towards their right side.
There’s crafty Mitch Marner, whom Cassidy compared to Wayne Gretzky after Thursday’s two-goal performance. Then Kasperi Kapanen, a straight lines speed demon like his father Sami. Then William Nylander, who expertly uses his edges and doesn’t break stride while constantly scanning the options around him, and Connor Brown, a dogged worker who blew past Chara in the third period of Toronto’s 4-1 victory.
All told, they are a group that respects the Bruins captain but are not intimidated by him. They see an opportunity to use his six-foot-nine, 250-pound frame against him and become a handful in the Boston zone.
"Just be heavy on him. Just a heavy game," Kapanen said Friday of the approach to Big Zee. "Try to hit everybody as much as you can, especially him. Try to wear him down, he’s a big man.
"He’s played in the league a long time, but he’s getting older."
A couple Leafs players delighted in the video clip that worked its way around social media showing Trevor Moore knock Chara to the ice. Moore gave up 70 pounds and roughly 11 inches in that exchange, and gushed about getting to line up across from him in his Stanley Cup playoff debut: "He’s the guy that I have tremendous respect for and a guy who I watched growing up. It’s surreal to be on the same ice as him."
While it’s only one game in a NHL career that’s featured 1,645 of them, Cassidy will have his hands full if Chara doesn’t bounce back on Saturday night. The coach’s most pressing concern is neutralizing Marner’s line, and he switched away from Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo in that matchup early in Game 1.
The Chara-Charlie McAvoy pairing didn’t fare particularly well in their place — seeing Marner and his linemates control 62.5 per cent of attempts against them, while scoring a goal in the first period.
Chara, in particular, struggled with Toronto’s speed. He was beaten clean on a couple long stretch passes through the neutral zone and took Boston’s only minor penalty of the game when he held up a racing Nylander in the waning minutes.
"He couldn’t really do much," said Nylander. "It would have been maybe a breakaway. So he kind of had to."
Because of his size, Chara has a special dispensation from the league to use a longer stick than any other player. He usually gets his 65-inch Warrior on an opposing attacker with a full head of steam, making it tougher to drive towards the net.
But the Leafs still see an open path, one that often means taking the puck directly towards his feet and working through his wingspan. Auston Matthews rang a shot off the post in Game 1 by doing a curl-and-drag inside that space.
"[His stick] creates a lot of gaps," said Kapanen. "Pass it through the triangle. Try to shoot it through the triangle."
Chara chalked the performance up to not having enough "awareness" of what the Leafs were trying to do, presumably on the stretch passes out of their own zone. He won’t be caught surprised again in Game 2.
Still, he’ll be shouldering a big load as the Bruins try to find a way to slow Marner down and salvage a split at TD Garden. Toronto plans to keep blazing a trail towards his side of the ice with the pedal down.
"If you stutter or you’re flat-footed at any point, he’s going to pin you and eliminate you," said Brown.
"It’s just making sure we’re trying to work the ice behind him, trying to get behind him and trying to just keep our feet moving on the cycle," said Marner.
They’re betting he won’t be able to keep up.
[relatedlinks]
