While the Boston Bruins won five straight entering this game, they were without Elias Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, and they still managed to claw out a 5-3 win over the Maple Leafs.
A lot happened over the 60 minutes, but the underlying story is that an undermanned Bruins team outworked a fairly healthy Leafs team, costing Toronto two points.
The Leafs have been searching for better starts, and at the very start of this game, they momentarily found one. Their top line generated a good first shift, including a great Matthew Knies chance in the slot off a broken play up the wall, followed by a drawn penalty. The top power-play unit didn’t do much with it, but after the second unit gained the zone, Nick Robertson and Max Domi played pitch and catch. Robertson took possession on the half-wall and passed it down low to Domi, who pulled up high as Robertson rolled to the net, finding a soft spot for Domi to zip it through to Robertson for a deflection into the net.
After seven straight games of giving up the game’s first goal, the Leafs finally scored first, and for once, it felt like they wouldn’t be chasing a game. That feeling didn’t even last a minute; Boston not only tied it 18 seconds later but then took the lead 20 seconds after the 1-1 goal.
Particularly frustrating for the Leafs is that it came against their fourth and third lines on successive shifts, and each involved bad mistakes. On the first goal, Morgan Geekie skated freely through the neutral zone, leading to Boston gaining the zone cleanly with speed at five-on-five. Geekie took a pass in stride, double-clutched after missing his shot at first, and still had ample time and space to reload because Morgan Rielly didn’t gap up properly. As the Bruins gained the zone, look how far back Rielly already sagged, while covering nobody in the process:
The next shift was probably worse from the Leafs‘ perspective. Philippe Myers did the right thing by not just throwing it off the glass and making a real play, sending a tape-to-tape pass to Dakota Joshua. But Joshua nonchalantly, and inexplicably, tried to cut into the middle of the Leafs’ zone with the puck. It naturally led to a turnover, and after Victor Arvidsson whacked at the puck at the top of the Leafs’ crease, it found its way in.
To go from a good shift from the top line in which the team drew a penalty leading to a 1-0 power play goal, only for the Leafs’ two bottom-six lines to allow two cheap goals against in rapid succession, is a bitter pill to swallow.
The sloppiness continued afterward. A weird exchange between Stolarz and Scott Laughton almost led to another turnover goal right in the slot for Boston. William Nylander made a bad pass that led to a 2v1 against, but David Pastrnak couldn’t convert.
The Leafs did manage to draw another penalty, and once again, the second unit stepped up after a listless top unit showing. After the penalty expired, the puck rimmed low, where Nic Roy made a great pass between his legs to Mattias Maccelli, who was all alone in front and made no mistake.
The Leafs scored a power-play goal and scored right after a power play expired in a first period that ended with the Leafs up 2-0 in power plays. You knew the next call was coming Boston’s way. On the first shift of the period, it did — a soft call on Bobby McMann, and the Leafs couldn’t get the kill.
There will be a lot of attention on the goal review, and rightfully so. Michael Eyssimont tried jamming the puck in, it was called no goal on the ice, and we never saw a definitive replay showing it fully crossed the goal line. I think it probably went in, but to overturn a call, it needs to be conclusive, and our views on the broadcast did not show anything approaching conclusive.
We should also note that the whole sequence doesn’t happen if Joshua isn’t held and taken down while attempting to clear the puck up the wall right before the goal. To cap it all off, Stolarz should come up with the save. The puck got right through him, he didn’t hold his post well, and he wasn’t pushed in.
Two and a half minutes later, David Pastrnak scored a 4-2 goal as he barely moved his feet to get around Simon Benoit, who lunged at Pastrnak and was torched for his efforts. But Pastrnak didn’t have much space after he got around Benoit, and the puck still found its way in. The broadcast suggested that pulling Stolarz was mainly about sending a message to the whole team, and while I’m sure that was part of it, Stolarz also didn’t play well, hasn’t for a while now, and deserved the yank.
The Leafs did seem to get a small spark from the goalie change, but it was short-lived. Shots were 22-12 for Boston with nine minutes left in the middle frame, and the Leafs weren’t creating or sustaining much pressure.
The game took a bit of a turn when Nikita Zadorov steamrolled Scott Laughton — knocking Laughton out of the game — and initiated a fight with Bobby McMann. Good for McMann for getting in there, especially against a monster like Zadorov.
The fight seemed to go to the Leafs’ legs and/or pride, as to this point in the game, Boston was outplaying them handily and had just injured a Toronto player. The Leafs drew a penalty, and the power play went back to work.
Craig Berube rightfully started the second unit before the top unit jumped on in the second half of the power play and scored on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play between OEL, Nylander, and Tavares to bring the game to 4-3 entering the third period.
It wasn’t like the Leafs came out and put the pedal to the metal in the third. The Nic Roy line generated a really good shift in the first 10 minutes, but that was about it.
With about four and a half minutes remaining, it looked like Nylander tied the game (he even celebrated as such). First, he missed the net on a shot in the slot, but it bounced right back to him on the other side of the net. He somehow put it off the crossbar, off the post, off Swayman’s skate, and out.
Not long afterward, Fraser Minten (of course) scored, as Steven Lorentz — somehow on the ice with the Leafs down a goal with under four minutes to play — made a terrible play for a turnover that the Bruins immediately buried.
Game over.
Post-Game Notes
– This marks the first time Anthony Stolarz has been pulled for a non-injury-related reason as a Maple Leaf. He gave up four goals on 19 shots, and while you can feel for him on a few of them, he’s also paid to make saves, and he’s not doing it nearly enough right now. After entering the game with an .895 save percentage, he was a .798 in this one. I think a big part of the pull is about his entire season to date. It has not been even close to good enough.
– Dennis Hildeby stopped 19 of 20 shots in relief and was excellent. He gave the Leafs a real chance to come back in this one.
– Simon Benoit was effectively benched after he was burned by Pastrnak. It was terrible defending, and he has struggled pretty much all season. He didn’t play against Utah due to illness, and the team didn’t miss him at all. In the game prior, he was burned after attempting to beat Connor Dewar wide, leading to an odd-man rush goal the other way. He is not a veteran who should be an automatic lineup lock, and his place in the top six should very much be in question. Benoit played just 11:04 tonight.
– Philippe Myers also struggled and played just 11:15. I could stomach the two big bodies playing if they inflicted pain on opponents, but they don’t do much of that, either. The Benoit-Myers pairing was on for multiple goals against, committed a collection of defensive gaffes and lost battles, and didn’t move the puck well. After Zadorov knocked a teammate out of the game, they were nowhere to be found. What’s the payoff? Penalty killing, where both are serviceable?
– You can add Steven Lorentz to this healthy scratch mix. He played just 10:05 despite Laughton missing half the game, committed a brutal giveaway for a goal against, and didn’t make one positive contribution of note on the ice. Calle Jarnkrok is capable of far more.
– You have to feel for Scott Laughton, who didn’t return to the game. He struggled to adjust after the deadline, reset in the summer only to break his foot in preseason, and when he finally returned, he got injured again one game later. Hopefully, he’s okay and can return shortly, but it feels like a black cloud is hovering over Laughton in Toronto so far.
– The Leafs’ video team missed a clear offside on the Eyssimont goal. They simply haven’t been good enough this season. The offside was clear as day. Earlier in the season, they lost a pointless goaltender interference challenge, resulting in a penalty and a goal against.
– I can’t remember John Tavares ever struggling as badly in the faceoff circle as he did in this game. He won just 35% while losing nearly every key faceoff (power play, end of the game, etc.). The Leafs won 48.4 overall — which is fine — but it felt like they lost every single key draw.
– Nick Robertson is up to six points in his last six games and was once again one of the Leafs’ most dangerous players in this game. He played 15:56, recorded three shots on net, and has been able to create shift-to-shift in a top-six role. I don’t know why Max Domi was on the ice over Robertson with the net empty.
– Every Leafs line was outscored 1-0 except for the Auston Matthews line. But the Matthews line didn’t score at five-on-five, and when the team is playing its three best forwards together, they essentially have to score every night to justify it. It’s a lot to ask, but it’s the reality of this configuration.
– It was a big positive to see the power play pot two and also score right after the other penalty expired. The top unit’s goal by John Tavares was really nice, and so was the Robertson goal, for that matter. They zipped it around with purpose. For a power play that has really struggled, hopefully, this gets the monkey off their back and they start rolling now.
– Mattias Maccelli is up to eight points in 14 games after scoring his fourth of the season. He produced 18 points all of last season. So far, he looks far more likely to return to his 50-ish point form, and that’s a big development for the Leafs. He’s clearly crafty, and his line with Roy and Joshua is legitimately gelling.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
