Maple Leafs vs Bruins Game 1 starting lineups & other notes

The time has finally come. The season-long anticipation for the 2024 NHL playoffs is over, and the 16 best teams who qualified for the playoffs will begin their journey for the ultimate prize – Lord Stanley.

For the third time in seven years and the fourth time in 11 years, the playoffs will feature a Toronto Maple Leafs/Boston Bruins series. Losing streaks from both original six franchises in the final stretch of the season led to the final week, when Toronto lost to Florida and Boston,  who needed a win lost to Ottawa. The Bruins dropped to the second seed in the Atlantic division.

For the longest time, everyone thought a rematch from the second round of the 2023 playoffs was inevitable in the first round between Toronto and Florida, with Boston leading the way for almost the entirety of the season. But after a hot streak from Florida, they tightened the gap and made things interesting down the stretch of the regular season, along with Boston faltering at certain times.

Even though Toronto was always on the outside looking in for one of the top two spots in the Atlantic division, there was a moment in the season when the Maple Leafs had games in hand on both teams and sat only ten or fewer points behind the Panthers and the Bruins. Well, as we know, Toronto couldn’t capitalize on those games in hand and ultimately ended the season 5-4-1, including a four-game losing streak, setting up a series that will forever haunt Maple Leafs fans.

When it comes to tonight’s game one, Toronto will enter TD Garden a little short-handed as Bobby McMann remains out of the lineup with a lower-body injury sustained in a game against the Detroit Red Wings. But it’s not just McMann who is out with an injury. William Nylander, who had a career year with 98 points, hasn’t been on the ice recently, and his status for game one is up in the air.

You can read more about Nylander’s potential absence and how the Tavares line needs to rise to the occasion in tonight’s game one preview here written by Arun Srinivasan.

Tyler Bertuzzi – Auston Matthews – Max Domi

Matthew Knies – John Tavares – Mitch Marner

Nick Robertson – Pontus Holmberg – Calle Jarnkrok

Connor Dewar – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves

Morgan Rielly – Ilya Lyubushkin

Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe

Joel Edmundson – Timothy Liljegren

Danton Heinen – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak

Brad Marchand – Charlie Coyle – Jake DeBrusk

Jakub Lauko – Morgan Geekie – Trent Frederic

John Beecher – Jesper Boqvist – Pat Maroon

Hampus Lindholm – Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzelcyk – Brandon Carlo

Kevin Shattenkirk – Andrew Peeke

Ilya Samsonov (TOR) vs Jeremy Swayman (BOS)

Sportsnet, 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT

(Projected lineups from dailyfaceoff.com)