Explain your opinion: Maple Leafs or Bruins improved more this season

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins renew their bitter rivalry with their first meeting of the 2024-25 regular season at TD Garden on Saturday (7:00 p.m. ET; NHLN, NESN, SNP, SNO, CBC).

Every team is still trying to find its initial form.

The Maple Leafs (4-4-0) have lost two straight and three of four. In those three losses – to the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues – Toronto went 15-4. New coach Craig Berube, who replaced Sheldon Keefe in the offseason, was clearly unhappy with Thursday's 5-1 loss to the Blues, his former team. Center Auston Matthews has three goals in eight games after posting an NHL career-high 69 last season.

The Bruins (3-4-1) are 0-2-1 in their last three games, including a 4-0 loss Tuesday at the Nashville Predators, who were winless to that point. On Thursday they lost 5-2 at home to the Dallas Stars. Aside from forwards David Pastrnak (five goals) and Cole Koepke (three), no other player on the roster has scored more than two goals. Captain Brad Marchand has yet to score a goal in eight games.

To say the game is huge for both sides is an understatement.

But these two teams bring out the best in each other, especially since they met on a semi-regular basis in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the last seven postseasons, they have faced each other in the first round three times, and Boston emerged with a seven-game series win each time.

Last season, Pastrnak scored in overtime of Game 7 to send Toronto home early again. But in the second round the Bruins lost to the Florida Panthers, the eventual Stanley Cup winners.

Each team spent the offseason filling gaps in their game and signing new players. Everyone struggled to find consistency at the start of this campaign.

Therefore, it's hard to say which team has improved the most and which additions could have the biggest impact on this bitter rivalry and the season as a whole. But that's the argument staff writers Amalie Benjamin and Mike Zeisberger tackle in the latest issue of State Your Case.

Benjamin: I still think it's Boston. Yes, yes, I know I'm based here. But I also have some confidence in what the Bruins are building, the improvements they've made specifically on the defensive side of the puck, and the possibilities for a team that packs a heck of a lot of punch on the blue line. I have to say, I didn't expect Boston to finish 24th in the NHL in goals per game (3.43) after finishing tied for fifth last season (2.70). The addition of Nikita Zadorov, who will provide the spark the Bruins may have been missing, should only be a blessing for a team that still harbors championship aspirations. With Zadorov, every member of Boston's defense is at least 6-foot-1, agile, and can potentially increase their offensive output if things go well. At the moment, however, there is still a lot of room for improvement in defense.

Zeisberger: As for the Bruins' improvements, I share your logic. For me, Boston's biggest needs were a top-end center and some growl on the back end, and both were addressed with Elias Lindholm and Zadorov. The reason I'm here supporting the Maple Leafs has nothing to do with anyone on the ice and everything to do with the man behind the bench. Sheldon Keefe was a very good coach in the regular season, but was never able to get Toronto over the postseason hurdle, especially against the Bruins. This is a Boston franchise that has beaten Toronto in four straight Game 7s. It's obvious that the Bruins are ingrained in the minds of Toronto's players. Enter Craig Berube, who was hired as Keefe's successor on May 17. It's already clear that his north-south, everyone-accountable style is the kind of blueprint that can equal postseason success. When he won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, he was actually on the ice at TD Garden and won Game 7 on the road. That was proof that Berube wasn't different from other teams or the arenas in which they played to play, to intimidate. Can he get his players to buy in and feel the same way? That is the pressing question.