{"id":96094,"date":"2024-04-20T12:36:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T12:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/?p=96094"},"modified":"2024-04-20T12:36:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T12:36:53","slug":"bruins-goalie-tandem-highlights-area-of-weakness-for-maple-leafs-quynhlong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/bruins-goalie-tandem-highlights-area-of-weakness-for-maple-leafs-quynhlong\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins Goalie Tandem Highlights Area Of Weakness For Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we go again. For the 17th time, the Bruins and Maple Leafs will meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bruins'<\/p>\n

The series, which begins on Saturday night, marks the third time the two Original Six franchises will meet in the first round since Boston\u2019s\u00a0iconic Game 7 comeback<\/a>\u00a0in 2013.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Black and Gold have won the past six meetings between the two clubs and have even won seven straight regular-season games dating back to the 2022-23 season, but if the Leafs have it their way, they will finally exorcise their demons and clinch their first postseason series over the Bruins since 1959.<\/p>\n

One of Toronto\u2019s biggest weaknesses in the series is sure to be highlighted by what has been\u00a0one of Boston\u2019s strengths<\/a>\u00a0for the past two seasons \u2014 goaltending.<\/p>\n

Bruins netminders Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman both rank in the\u00a0top 10 of all NHL goalies<\/a>\u00a0in goals saved above expected with at least 20 games this season. Swayman was tied for fifth in the league with a .916 save percentage, and Ullmark was right behind him, finishing the regular season at .915. Both Boston goalies also finished in the top 10 in goals-against average. Swayman posted a 2.53 for eighth best in the league, followed by Ullmark\u2019s 2.57 which was good enough for ninth.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s goaltending tandem didn\u2019t fair quite as well.<\/p>\n

Ilya Samsonov won 23 games for the Leafs but finished the regular season with a .890 save percentage and a 3.13 goals-against average. His goals-against average ranked him 40th among NHL goalies who started at least 20 games. Joseph Woll had better stats than Samsonov, a .907 save percentage, and a 2.94 goals-against average in 25 starts, but he still ranked outside of the top 30 in the league.<\/p>\n

While any goalie can turn into a brick wall and stand on their head in the postseason to steal a game or even a series, at five-on-five, Boston has saved a collective 36 goals above expected, which is good for second in the league behind only the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery\u00a0has yet to reveal\u00a0who the Game 1 starter would be, but he could go either way and be confident that Boston is going to get sound netminding.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we go again. For the 17th time, the Bruins and Maple Leafs will meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The series, which begins on Saturday night,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":96095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96096,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96094\/revisions\/96096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playsetmusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}