Maple Leafs begin familiar playoff script in Game 1 loss to Bruins

You expect it at this point.

It's the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so it's time for the Toronto Maple Leafs' potent regular-season offense to disappear and for their players to panic in the glare of the postseason bright lights and do inexplicable things on the ice.

And there's a new one this year: One of their best and most durable players comes up with a mystery injury/illness two days before the playoff opener and does not play.

That's William Nylander, who had 40 goals and 98 points, who has missed one regular-season game over the past three seasons.

According to the team, Nylander began experiencing "discomfort" on the Thursday off day. And then did not practice on Friday. 

It's usual for NHL teams to be coy about the exact nature of injuries during the playoffs. But it's usually called either a "lower body" or "upper body" injury.  There is absolutely no information on whatever's wrong with Nylander. And on Friday coach Sheldon Keefe did not even indicate whether Nylander was or was not likely to play on Saturday.

The recipient of all of this is the Boston Bruins, who took a 1-0 lead in the first-round series with a 5-1 win on their home ice at TD Garden on Saturday night. The score could have been much worse because the Bruins hit four goalposts or crossbars.

Jake DeBrusk had two goals and an assist, and John Beecher, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic also scored for Boston. Goaltender Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves.

David Kampf got Toronto's lone goal.

While there's plenty of time for the Maple Leafs to right themselves, recent history suggests that is unlikely to happen. Toronto has been eliminated in the first round five times in the last seven seasons.

It did make it out of the first round last year but the Leafs were then immediately swept out of the playoffs in the second round.

Game 2 is Monday at 7 p.m. at the TD Garden.