NHL Playoffs 2018: Bruins vs. Maple Leafs Game 1 start time, live stream, TV schedule

Here’s all the information you need to watch Game 1 of the NHL Playoffs 2018 series between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs

The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs are set to face off in a playoff series that has become the popular choice to go seven games. It’ll be a battle featuring the defensively-sound Bruins against the offensively-powered Maple Leafs, beginning in Boston on Thursday night.

Toronto won the season series 3-1 including a 4-1 victory in Boston on Nov. 11. This included sweeping back-to-back games against Boston after a 4-3 overtime win the night before at home.

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At the time of the sweep, Boston was a struggling team having lost six of eight games after the back-to-back against the Leafs. In fact, the pair of losses to a division rival seemed to spark the Bruins, as the club would win four of their next five games and nine of their next 12.

The Bruins never looked back and became one of the conference’s best teams coming within two points of finishing first in the Eastern Conference.

Then there were the Leafs, who seemed to be stuck in third place in the Atlantic Division ever since the Bruins went on their run at the end of November. Toronto proved all season they were better than a wild card team but due to the strong play of the Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Maple Leafs could never threaten to take away home ice in the playoffs from their division foes.

Although Toronto finished behind Boston in the standings, given the Leafs won the season series, it suggests the playoff series could be as close as a coin flip. However, it is tough to judge anything based on the season series after all the irregularities that occurred in the four games.

Toronto only played one of the four regular-season games against Boston with Auston Matthews in the lineup and they lost it. Meanwhile, the Bruins played three of the four games with Brad Marchand in the lineup and the only one he missed was the only one Boston won.

Also given the winning streak the Bruins went on after losing the back-to-back with Toronto in mid-November, it’s impossible to put any weight into those Maple Leaf victories. Clearly, Boston transformed into a completely different team after their early-season struggles.

However, the Bruins have basically been a revolving door of injuries all season and the injury bug didn’t ease up towards the end of the season either. Key players like Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron, and David Backes all missed significant time down the stretch of the season.

It remains to be seen if Riley Nash and Rick Nash will be available for game one but Brandon Carlo won’t be after recently undergoing ankle surgery. Meanwhile, Toronto enters the series about as healthy as a team can be at this time of year.

Another thing potentially working in the Maple Leafs’ favor has been Boston’s inability to slow down Mitch Marner. Marner led both teams in scoring in their four meetings with nine points while nobody on the Bruins had more than four. If Toronto has any chance of winning the series they’ll need Marner to continue to produce given Matthews will likely see more of Bergeron over the course of the series than his own shadow.

The Bruins were the better team over 82-games but have they been banged up too much over the past month to withstand the offensive power of the Maple Leafs? Can Toronto be responsible enough to not be exposed by Boston’s defensive pressure without getting worn down over a seven-game series?

Live Stream Info

Date: Thursday, April 12th
Start Time: 7:00pm ET
Venue: TD Garden
Location: Boston, MA
Series Lead: Series is tied at zero
Announcers: Mike “Doc” Emerick, Mike Milbury, Pierre McGuire
TV Channel: NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, NESN
Live Stream: NBC Sports

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And then there’s Tuukka Rask and Frederik Andersen, two goaltenders perfectly capable of turning every game into a 1-0 triple-overtime contest. Flip a coin for game one because this series is going seven games where no 4-1 lead will be safe.