players or play with structure. The Bruins’ first goal from James van Riemsdyk (remember him?) came off a turnover from Ryan Reaves. There wasn’t a Leafs player in sight as van Riemsdyk deked Ilya Samsonov in front of the Toronto net.
The Leafs also gave up another last-minute goal in the second period. T.J. Brodie made a bad decision to go for a loose puck. He missed it, leaving Marchand and David Pastrnak a 2-on-0 breakaway. Pastrnak scored to make it 3-0 Bruins. Keefe’s Leafs are playing tight and with hesitation.
Yes, Keefe tried to ignite the Leafs offense by combining Matthews, Marner, or Nylander for some shifts, but his other decisions have been underwhelming.
For example, he had a Reaves, Pontus Holmberg, David Kampf combination (20 goals combined all season, including playoffs) on the ice with three minutes remaining in the third period and the Leafs down by two goals.
Keefe’s team only generated 16 shots on goal through two periods, most of them from the outside, in the next closest thing to a must-win game.
Game 4 was so bad that the Leafs were rightfully booed off the ice after the second-period horn and again at the end of the game.
The effort of the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t be questioned, but their inability to produce in big, postseason moments, with the same repetitive mistakes, is endless.
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