The Toronto Maple Leafs came out on top last night after Mitch Marner scored twice, including one on a short-handed penalty shot, and led the Leafs to a 4-1 victory over the Bruins to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
While head coach Mike Babcock was happy about his team’s performance and the speed of his guys, he made sure to unveil what was a real success for the Leafs and how glad he is that his new plan worked.
The Leafs bench boss revealed that he made an important shift during the game. After Bruins star forward Patrice Bergeron came the home team the 1-0 lead in the game, Babcock decided to switch up his defensive pairing. After the game during his press conference, he was proud to explain what had taken place, saying he made the switch from Morgan Rielly and Ron Hainsey to Jake Muzzin and Nikita Zaitsev against the Bergeron line and added that he was glad it worked out the way it did on Thursday night.
We are pretty sure the Bruins will look at the tape and work on their speed, but also on way to battle the new defensive pairings.
However, some fans would have preferred Babcock kept his mouth shut about his new combos.
Let’s see how the Bruins get ready for this new approach and if the Leafs can keep having success with Babcock’s genius ideas.
