BOSTON — All of a sudden, a seven-game series against the Toronto Maple Leafs doesn’t look so enticing to the Bruins.
The Leafs’ speed was aided greatly by the B’s bad decisions and poor puck management and Toronto absolutely thumped the B’s, 6-4, at the Garden on Tuesday, a final score that was not indicative of the overall game.
It was a sobering night. The B’s had come into the game as the hottest team in the league, 14-2-1 in their previous 17, and the Leafs arrived with a whole bunch of uncertainty in net. But even though the Leafs, already down their No. 1 goalie Jack Campbell, lost Petr Mrazek to injury early in the first period, Toronto was the better team from the opening faceoff.
The B’s, of course, have beaten the Leafs in the first round three times in the last decade. But despite all the improvements they’ve made since they lost in Toronto back in November, they would have to be considered decided underdogs in a potential playoff meeting if the teams were to be judged by the two head-to-head meetings.
It got ugly early.
The B’s put forth one of their more sloppy 20 minutes in recent memory and the Leafs’ speed took full advantage of it, taking a 3-1 lead.
Connor Clifton, who’d been playing very well since Hampus Lindholm was acquired, had a rough first period and was responsible for a couple of goals against.
The first one came 5:09 into the game. With and Matt Grzelcyk both on the same side of the ice in deep, Clifton’s pass attempt to Grzelcyk (minus-3 in the first) was way off the mark. Jason Spezza took the gift off the the right boards and fed deadline acquisition Colin Blackwell for the easy tap-in that Jeremy Swayman did not have much of a chance to stop.
The B’s tied it up on a power-play goal just 50 seconds later. In the 12 seconds after Michael Bunting went to the box for tripping Hampus Lindholm, David Pastrank first hit the crossbar behind the starter Mrazek and, after Patrice Bergeron got him the puck back, he got a better bounce the second time as his shot/pass was deflected by T.J. Brodie and past Mrazek.
At 7:44, Mrazek pulled himself out of the game with what looked like a right leg injury and in went rookie Erik Kallgren. That seemed to strengthen the Leafs resolve and they gave the B’s little room in the offensive zone to operate.
The Leafs took a 2-1 lead when William Nylander blew past Brandon Carlo during a 4-on-4 for a clean look at Swayman. His shot went just wide but John Tavares gathered the rebound and made a touch pass to Morgan Rielly for a shortside goal at 9:43.
After Mitch Marner and Bunting messed up a 2-on-0, it looked like the B’s might get out of the first with a one-goal deficit, but another the Leafs extended their advantage to two goals with 1:16 left in the period. Alex Kerfoot blocked a Clifton shot and took off on a clean breakaway, beating Swayman with a pretty forehand tuck.
The B’s came out with some jump in the second and earned a power-play at 6:06, but after failing to mount an attack, the Leafs gashed them for another one at 8:28. Craig Smith’s breakout pass was in Jake DeBrusk’s skates and Bunting turned it around for a quick counterattack. On a 2-on-1, Auston Matthews fed Marner for a one-timer and the B’s found themselves down 4-1.
It got worse. After Ilya Lyubushkin caught Taylor Hall with a hit along the boards that Hall believed was beyond the pale, Hall took out his frustrations with a punch to the side of Lyubushkin’s head, earning him two minutes. Not long after that, Matthews made 5-1 on the power-play off a rebound at 16:00.
David Kampf made it a romp with a tipped goal 47 seconds later for a 6-1 Toronto lead. Swayman finished out the period, but he was pulled for Linus Ullmark to start the third.
Jake DeBrusk added a late one in the second but the hole the B’s had dig for themselves was too deep, which was made even deeper by Brad Marchand being assessed a 10-minute misconduct at the end of the period as the B’s tempers got the best of the them.
Well they couldn’t climb out, they did make the Leafs squirm a bit. Curtis Lazar got a goal back with 6:58 left and, to the B’s credit, they kept playing. Hall scored with 2:22 remaining — it was originally waved off for goalie interference, but it was put on the board after a video review — to make it 6-4.
But that was as close they would get.
