Your Boston Bruins rolled in Scotiabank Center for a Saturday night tilt with the Toronto Maple Leafs and rolled out with an OTW over one of (if not the most) loathsome teams in the entire league. This team plays like an All-Star team, all about their points and only skating hard heading into the offensive zone. And the way their built? All that money tied up in their “superstars” and no crumbs left for defense or goaltending. I’ll tell you this and you can take it to the bank: as constituted, this Leafs team will NEVER win the Cup.
The teams played fairly evenly in the first with a slight edge in shots going to the Leafs. The zone time was piling up for TOR but it was all on the perimeter. BOS was dialed in taking away shooting lanes and clogging the neutral with sticks and bodies making TOR work for every inch. David Pastrnak got the B’s on the board first when his wrister from the top of the circles beat Joseph Wall over the blocker and under the crossbar. Great outlet/assist from Brandon Carlo to send Pastrnak into the TOR zone.
That score held until about 7mins gone in the middle frame when Kevin Shattenkirk got his first in the Black and Gold. Jake DeBrusk drove the net on the LW and his bid was turned aside from Woll but Pastrnak was there to gather the puck in the LW corner and drive back up the wing with his head up the whole time. Shattenkirk came off the bench and busted down the RW where Pastrnak found him for a seam pass right on the tape. Shattenkirk gathered the puck in on his forehand and went across the goal mouth before flipping it up and over Woll’s glove on the backhand. Silky Shatty indeed.
Austin Matthews got the Leafs on the board when he cleaned up a goal mouth scramble and put the puck in an open net past Charlie McAvoy, who was covering for the sprawled out Linus Ullmark. Can I talk about Matthews? This fucking guy. Matthews is the guy in beer league who just floats all night, takes super long shifts and wants to look at the stats as soon as the final horn is blown. And you’re going to tell me this guy is the face of USA Hockey? Give me either Tkachuk brother over him. Find me video of Matthews skating hard on the backcheck. I’ll wait. He busts ass on the offensive rush, but on defense? It’s all straight leg gliding. His style of play offends me as a hockey fan. For all the money tied up in Matthews, Marner and Tavares (over $30M/year), based on tonight’s game I’d take William Nylander or Matthew Knies over any of them. And man oh man is Tavares even slower than he was on the Island.
To open up the 3rd, the most over-rated hockey player in the NHL, Max Domi, tied it up for the Leafs. Shattenkirk’s saucer pass didn’t get up enough at the offensive blue line and that sent Domi and Nicholas Robertson away for a 2:1. Robertson held the puck and drew the D wide before finding Domi who went forehand-backhand to get his first as a Leaf. Domi must be an insufferable teammate as he’s played on 7 teams in his 9 years in the league. You don’t bounce around that much if you’re good in the room. I mean the guy surrounds himself with assholes and douchebags, birds of a feather and all that…
Trent Frederic put the Bruins ahead when he tucked in a loose puck that it looked like Woll thought he had trapped on top of his blocker? Weird play, but it doesn’t matter how, just how many. Morgan Geekie (played his best game of the year tonight in my opinion) carried the puck into the TOR zone and circled wide before dropping the puck to Derek Forbort just inside the line. Darla’s Dad put a rising wrister on net that Woll just flat out dropped off his blocker on the blue paint for Frederic to tuck. Good things happen when you go to the net.
With time winding down in regulation the Leafs pulled Woll in favor for the extra attacker and it worked. Matthews (again floating into the soft spots) put the puck into a wide open net with Ullmark down after getting run by Tavares (no call and on the review the goal was upheld) with just seconds remaining. The two clubs were heading to extra hockey.
I sincerely hope that if you’ve read this far, you get to watch the entire OT at some point. Great possession from the Bruins and some ridiculous goaltending from Ullmark. I mean he was lights out all game, but his best work was in the OT period. I’d also be remiss to not point out that the cowards in stripes had their whistles firmly lodged up their asses in not calling any penalties on the Leafs in the extra time. I mean c’mon…
It all worked out as Brad Marchand tucked the game winner after running over Nylander in the neutral zone and going up to grab Pastrnak’s rebound before stuffing home the OTGWG. As Homeboy Jack said “As Brad Marchand, who came to Toronto as the villain, sticks the stake in the Leafs’ heart”. On a side note, if you don’t love the most emotionally invested play by play guy in all of the NHL you need to re-assess all of your life choices.
And for all the talk that Ryan Reaves did in the run up to this game, let’s take a spin through his stat line. 8 shifts, 5:57 TOI, 4 hits, 2PIM and completely irrelevant. For all you idiots calling for the Bruins to “go get a tough guy” and the chorus of “we need Lucic back” – shut the fuck up. Guys like Reaves are being phased out of the league. As much as I like watching him cave in someone’s head, taking up a roster spot for what he brings isn’t worth it. He’s more of a detriment to his own team when he’s out there. The league will always need tough guys, but the days of the heavyweights is going. It’s a guy like Frederic, a middleweight who can chip in on offense and play responsible minutes, that’s what you need on your roster.
The Bruins are right back at it tomorrow as they host CBJ.
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