When it’s really mattered over the last 15-or-so years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have served as a screen door to the gale force winds of the Boston Bruins.
Anytime there’s been a big game, a gotta-have-it, must-win, Boston always seems to have the last laugh over the Torontonians. Rallying from a three-goal third period deficit, backbreaking goals to beat the Buds in OT, multiple Game 7s triumphs … it’s always the Bruins who seem to have the last laugh.
All of which makes their Tuesday night’s loss to a Maple Leafs team that’s not only playing out the string, but one you could argue is trying not to win in order to keep their own first round draft pick (more on that below) so disheartening.
It all fell apart in the second period for Boston in this instance, as they failed to convert on three power plays, gave up a shorthanded goal, allowed the go-ahead tally while killing a penalty late in the frame, and took a 5-minute major that indirectly led to another lamplighter three minutes into the third.
“The second period, our power play was terrible,” center Elias Lindholm admitted. “It killed the momentum and they got way more chances (shorthanded). Our special teams weren’t good enough.”
“The second period just killed everything for us.”
Nikita Zadorov, the NHL’s penalty minute leader, added 10 more to his ledger Tuesday night. The big Bruin defender was sent off for five minutes after hammering Toronto’s John Tavares in the corner with 2:07 left in the middle period of a 1-1 game. On the ensuing 4-on-3 power play, Max Domi cashed in from an odd angle to give Toronto a 2-1 advantage after two.
Zadorov, who admitted he was trying to play his game and be physical with Tavares, said afterwards that the boarding major “was the right call at the end of the day.”
Always honest in his assessment of the team’s play, Zadorov didn’t hold back after two valuable points were wasted.
“We were just flat,” he said. “We didn’t have emotions against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that’s on us for sure. We’ve got to be better than that. Important points at home and to drop it like this, it’s embarrassing.”
Head coach Marco Sturm felt it was a “bad penalty” for Zadorov to take, especially coming while already shorthanded.
“Going into the corner like that, if you’re going to finish a check like that, it’s very risky,” said Sturm. “You just can’t do that; can’t allow that to happen. Unfortunately it cost us another goal … we need to be smarter.”
William Nylander increased the visitor’s lead to 3-1 seven seconds after Zadorov’s major expired, where the latter was slow getting into the defensive zone in an effort to break up a Maple Leafs dish out front.
Off the next faceoff, Zadorov promptly went off for another five after dropping Dakota Joshua in a neutral zone fight.
Charlie McAvoy’s power play goal got the Bruins back within one with a little less than 15 minutes to go, but that was it as far as offensive production for the home team. Knies bagged his second of the night on an empty netter, giving Toronto just its third victory since the Olympic break (an NHL low).
The Bruins own Toronto’s first round pick this June as long as it doesn’t finish in the bottom five of the league. Entering the night sixth-from-the-bottom in terms of percentage points, the Leafs probably did Boston a favor, in the long run, by winning this contest.
But it certainly didn’t feel like it. Boston knows just how precious every point is in this tight-as-a-military-bedsheet Eastern Conference race is in the regular season’s final month, and this was a golden opportunity wasted.
“We talked about it enough,” said McAvoy. “At some point, it doesn’t matter what you talk about. You have to go out and do it.”
McAvoy, who reached out to the newest member of the organization, highly regarded 2025 first round pick James Hagens, after the youngster from Boston College signed an ATO (amateur tryout agreement) with the AHL’s Providence Bruins late Monday night, remains a staunch believer in his team and what they’re capable of achieving.
“This is a resilient group,” said McAvoy, whose squad was right back at it Wednesday night with a game at first place Buffalo. “There’s never any any quit in our group, that’s what I know for sure.”