My analysis and comparison:
Goaltending: Even
- Rask and Reimer have put up very comparable numbers this season and have both stolen games for their teams. Rask has playoff experience, but not for three years, where he did alright, but not stellar. Reimer does not have playoff experience, but does handle pressure and agitation much better than Rask, as evidenced by this past season and previously.
Defense: Boston
- Boston's commitment to team defense is a thing to behold. They have the ability to close off other teams top lines and prevent the break out. They are mobile, strong and sound in their positioning. The downside is that they do not possess much offensive ability from the backend.
Defense A+, Offense B-
Toronto's defense is still a work in progress and has asked players to step into roles that they are unaccustomed to. The only positive about Toronto's defense over Boston's is that they actually have 4 defense pairings, and the bottom two are relatively interchangeable (Liles, O'byrne - Gardiner, Kostka). A defensive advantage goes to LO, and an offensive advantage goes to GK.
With LO - Defense B, Offense B....With GK - Defense B-, Offense B+
Forwards - Boston
Offensively, the teams are evenly matched, even though Toronto scored more goals than Boston during the regular season. The comparison I make is as follows:
Lucic - Van Reimsdyk, Kadri - Krejci, Kessel - Seguin
Marchand - Grabovski, Bergeron - Bozak, Horton - Lupul
Top 6 offensive forwards (goalscorers)= Boston-83 Toronto-88
Defensively is where Boston wins again, as evidenced by the collective +/- of the whole group as well as the goals against. The defensive forward group is much better than that of Toronto, as is the defensive ability of the top 6 forward group. In fact, Toronto only recently started putting together a defensive group that might be capable of a shut down role. (Kulemin, McClement, Komarov) After this group, there is a marked decrease in the defensive acumen of the remaining forward group. As a result, these players are often separated amongst the lines to help balance out the offensive and defensive responsibilities.
Special teams: Toronto
Penalty kill: Even
The penalty kills on either team were both within the top 5 in the league, due in Boston to their strong depth of defensive player accumen, and due in Toronto to the three players mentionned above and Bozak.
Powerplay: Toronto
This is the lone advantage that Toronto has over Boston. While both very strong penalty kills, Toronto's powerplay is exceedingly better than that of Boston's due to the offense from the backend. However, against a top notch penalty kill, the Toronto powerplay will be hard pressed to score, but have proven they can.
Overall advantage - Boston
The only way for Toronto to win the series is to make the series a special teams one. Both teams have players who can agitate and draw penalties, however Toronto has an advantage here. If Toronto can draw the Bruins into penalty laden contests, they will win in 6. If the Bruins can maintain discipline, they will negate Toronto's only advantage and pick apart the Leafs in 5.
