The Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics are both gearing up for their first round matchups in the playoffs this weekend. The Bruins will face the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Celtics will take on the Miami Heat in what will both be a first round best of seven series.
The Bruins, who finished the regular season with two straight losses to Washington and Ottawa, overachieved in many peoples opinions. Most of the prognosticators had them missing the postseason, but they went out and finished as the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47-20-15 good for 109 points which ended being a tie for the fifth best record in the NHL. David Pastrnak again has been one of the leaders with another 100+ point season with 47 goals and 63 assists (110). The B’s have four skaters that tallied 20 or more goals that also includes Brad Marchand (29 goals, 38 assists), Charlie Coyle (25 goals, 35 assists), and Pavel Zacha (21 goals, 38 assists).The 25 goals for Coyle is a career-high, besting the 21 he scored as a member of the Minnesota Wild in 2015-16. The team also has arguably the best goaltender tandem in the league, and coach Jim Montgomery has said they will use that two goalie system in postseason as well as they did during the regular year. Former University of Maine product Jeremy Swayman has a record of 25-10-8 with a 2.53 goals against average and a save percentage of .916 and three shutouts. Linus Ullmark is 22-10-7 with a 2.58 GAA and a save percentage of .915. Ullmark also has posted two shutouts. The powerplay struggled late in the regular season, and for success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that will have to be better or the Bruins will be an early exit like they were a year ago. Their opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs, is the #5 seed and has a record of 46-26-10. Boston handled Toronto in the regular season, winning one in a shootout in the first meeting, while skating to a pair of three goal victories in the last two contests head to head. The Leafs are led by the top goal scorer in the league in Auston Matthews (69 goals, 38 assists). Ilya Samsonov has emerged as the guy in net for Toronto and in 40 starts is 23-7-8 with a 3.13 GAA, an .890 save percentage, and three shutouts. Game 1 and Game 2 will be at TD Garden in Boston with the full schedule below. Game times for Games 5, 6, 7 (if necessary) are to be determined-
Game 1 Toronto at Boston- Saturday, Apr 20 @ 8 p.m.
Game 2 Toronto at Boston- Monday, Apr 22 @ 7 p.m.
Game 3 Boston at Toronto- Wednesday, April 24 @ 7 p.m.
Game 4- Boston at Toronto- Saturday, April 27 @ 8 p.m.
Game 5 (if necessary) Toronto at Boston- Tuesday, April 30- time to be determined
Game 6 (if necessary) Boston at Toronto- Thursday, May 2- time TBD
Game 7 (if necessary) Toronto at Boston- Saturday, May 4- time TBD
The Boston Celtics, who finished 64-18 to claim the best record in the NBA and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, begins their postseason run on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden against the Miami Heat, who defeated the Chicago Bulls for the #8 spot in a play-in game Friday night. The 64 wins is the four best in franchise history, behind the clubs from 1972-73 (68 wins), 1985-86 (67), and the 2007-08 team (66 wins). Two of those three Celtics teams, from 85-86 and 07-08, won the NBA Title. Boston is in search of that 18th title, with the 2008 club being the last to raise the trophy. All five C’s starters have averaged double figures during the regular season. The usual suspects Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are up at the top of that list. Tatum has averaged 26.9 points per game, 8.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and one steal while shooting 46% from the floor and 37.5% from the three-point arc. Brown isn’t far behind at 23 PPG, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.2 steals and is shooting 52.4% (39.5% from distance). The big off-season acquisition Kristaps Porzingis has paid dividends. Porzingis has put in 20.1 points per game, with 7.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and nearly 2.0 blocks per contest. Derrick White and Jrue Holiday also have had solid seasons to round out the usual starting five. White averages 15.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.0 steal, and 1.2 blocks. Holiday, who was also an offseason acquisition by President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens and recently signed a contract extension to stay in Boston, has had a great first year for the green averaging 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.0 steal, and almost 1.0 block per outing. Peyton Pritchard, Sam Houser, and veteran Al Horford sparks things off the bench for head coach Joe Mazzulla. Houser shot 42.4% from the three-point arc in the regular season. The Heat (47-37) played the Celtics three times in the regular season, with Boston winning all three matchups and Miami may also be without their star guard Jimmy Butler for this series as he is nursing a sprained MCL injury. Here is the full schedule for the first round, with game times for Games 4-7 to also be determined-
Game 1 Miami at Boston- Sunday, April 21 @ 1 p.m.
Game 2 Miami at Boston- Wednesday, April 24 @ 7 p.m.
Game 3 Boston at Miami- Saturday, April 27 @ 6 p.m.
Game 4 Boston at Miami- Monday, April 29 @ Time TBD
Game 5 (if necessary)- Miami at Boston- Wednesday, May 1 @ Time TBD
Game 6 (if necessary)- Boston at Miami- Friday, May 3 @ Time TBD
Game 7 (if necessary)- Miami at Boston- Sunday, May 5 @ Time TBD
Written by Chris Lessner
