Your Boston Bruins traveled North of the Border for an Original Six matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. There was a lot of angst around the inter-webs going into this one, (especially with the ways the Bruins have been playing as of late) but the B’s got it going back in the right direction with a 4-1 win that wasn’t as close as the final score made it seem.
The last time we saw the boys in Black and Gold, they were getting dominated by the New York JV team. That game tape against the Islanders was one to burn without watching. I’m talking an embarrassing loss at home to a team with “maybe” wild card aspirations at best. The B’s were outplayed in every aspect of that game and were lucky the final was only a 5-1 loss.
On the other end of the sheet tonight were the white-hot Maple Leafs. You know, the Leafs that have won 9 of their last 10 coming into this one and were blowing people out of the rink with their offensive prowess. They dusted the Golden Knights, beat Colorado and survived the Rangers: maybe this edition of the Leafs was different from previous versions? I mean they beat the… Coyotes twice? Hmm, wait a minute. They beat the Flyers and then the Blues… twice… well, that’s not too impressive. At least they beat… checks notes… the Ducks? What a minute. When you really look at it, they haven’t done shit since mid February.
Well tonight wasn’t much different from the recent history between the Bruins and the Leafs. At this point is it really fair to continue to call this a rivalry? Do you call the relationship between a hammer and a nail a rivalry? The Bruins beating the Leafs is kind of a tradition here in New England. I will say this; hopefully watching Sheldon Keefe behind the TOR bench makes the Facebook warriors back off Jim Montgomery a bit. Monty might not be the master tactician that Scotty Bowman was, but holy fuck Keefe makes him look pretty, pretty good. When your team can’t stop a breakout for 2 successive periods (since no one on your squad is picking up the Bruins’ centers leaving the zone), there’s no reason to make any adjustments, just keep hoping it fixes itself. That’s the top quality coaching we’ve seen from the TOR bench for awhile now.
To the game: The B’s jumped on the Leafs immediately. They were engaged and hunting the puck and taking the body every chance they had. As Brick said on the NESN feed: the Bruins were ready to play tonight from the opening draw. Morgan Geekie drew first blood when he finished off a David Pastrnak feed in the slot. Pasta wired the puck to Geekie who bunted it up and over a sprawled out Joseph Woll. That was Geekie’s 14th goal of the campaign which continues to add to his career high in goals and points (he’s 2 apples away from tying his career high in assists too).
A tick under 3 mins later, Pavel Zacha buried the game winning goal. On a BOS power play, Jake DeBrusk drove the net from the RW corner and dropped the puck to Pastrnak behind the net. DeBrusk continued on his path to the net, and Zacha did the same just about 6 feet higher in the slot. Pasta fed Zacha and his dragsnap from between the hashmarks beat Woll over the blocker.
In the middle frame, DeBrusk got on the board. This was DeBrusk’s first points in his last 6GP and you could see the relief on the winger’s face once the red light came on behind Woll. Charlie Coyle found DeBrusk from the RW and with Brad Marchand driving the net, DeBrusk beat Woll over the glove to put the B’s up by 3.
The Leafs got one back early in the third when the ghost of John Tavares beat Jeremy Swayman over the blocker, but they were shoveling against the tide at that point. The Leafs were beat in the first and were going through the motions for the last 40mins. And no player on the Leafs is more emblematic of that laissez-faire attitude than Auston Matthews. This fucking glider. You have to be kidding me that this is the face of US Hockey? GTFOH. Give me either Tkachuk brother, Jack Eichel or Kyle Connor as the stud on the US roster. I’m not denying that Matthews can fill the net with pucks and is a gifted goal scorer, but the Leafs are never winning anything with this guy as one of their “core leaders”, Geekie’s goal was helped in part by Matthews not going hard on the backcheck which gave the B’s an odd-man entry. And on DeBrusk’s goal? Look at that soft as puppy shit defense. DeBrusk blew through Matthew’s stick check like it wasn’t even there. That’s the definition of 10-ply defense. I mean, congrats on all of your individual goals, but the Leafs are never winning a Cup with this cat in a leadership position. Good news is that there’s nothing better than seeing these blue and white clad idiots crying in their beers in “Jurassic Park”.
But back to the game for a minute. The Bruins weren’t done as Zacha finished off another Pastrnak feed at the right post. Pasta circled the net and laid the puck across to Zacha for the punch in and it was all over except the clock. As the game wound down, the only Leaf forward who was pushing the pace to my eyes was William Nylander; who even drew a late penalty (bit of a dive but he was skating hard). But even with the goalie pulled and playing 6:4, the Leafs were content to pop away from long distance and were kept mostly to the perimeter.
Let’s get back to the Make Believes for a minute. If you’re a fan of this team, I ask you: how can you root for this nonsense? This roster seems to have been built by a drunken fantasy manager. The team is held hostage by the previous GM (now currently overseeing PGH’s playoff DNQ) who was handing out big tickets like Halloween candy. I mean I’m all for the players getting their bags, but with this type of roster construction, I feel I can say this confidently: The Leafs will never win a Stanley Cup. They have almost 47% of their cap tied up in 5 forwards? And over 65% of their entire cap is locked up between 7 players on the ice tonight (with Muzzin on LTIR). How much did they spend on goaltending? The Leafs goaltending corp (Matt Murray is also on LTIR) totals around $9.1M between Ilya Samsonov, Joseph Woll, Martin Jones and Murray. I mean no offense to those guys, but that’s not exactly Patrick Roy and Marty Brodeur between the pipes.
The plus side of all this TOR sadness is how it impacts us here in the Hub of Hockey, Dear Reader. We get to enjoy the pain on our Canadian neighbors’ poutine stained faces. We can continue to make jokes about the Leafs heading for the golf course every spring. How the Leafs are more interested in Bieber’s jock than Lord Stanley’s Cup. But hey, at least Matthews gets to add an All-Star game MVP trophy to his trophy case. No need to make room for The Cup just yet Auston. You got a ways to go before that one.
Yikes, now I have a bad taste in my mouth. Need a refresh. Let’s forget how bad the B’s were playing heading into this one and assume that this was the “get right game” the boys needed. Nothing but dubs from here on out.
Bruins win so that means it’s time for The Huggy Bears TM (glad they found Ullmark)
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The Morning Skate 
Thanks … good read 👍🏻
Bruce S. Weigert 3628 Kapalua Way Raleigh, NC 27610
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