Toronto Maple Leafs Outplay Boston Bruins But Still Lose
By Josh Tessler
Last night at the Air Canada Centre, the Toronto Maple Leafs were defeated by a score of 3-1 by the Boston Bruins.
I’ll be blunt, as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I’m disappointed in the squad. I’ll give the Maple Leafs credit though as they did out-shoot the Bruins 32-21. It wasn’t enough though.
The biggest issue last night was turnovers in the neutral zone and shooting from far off on Tuukka Rask. Still, the Leafs had over 60% of the possession and teams mostly win when that happens.
Unfortunately, I had the privilege of listening to NESN’s broadcast last night. After the first goal, Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley of NESN reminded me that the team that has scored the first goal in this series has prevailed in each game. Well, last night was no different.
First Period
Roughly thirty seconds into the game, the Bruins grabbed all the momentum that the Maple Leafs had from game three. The Bruins planted themselves in the Maple Leafs zone. David Pastrnak carried the puck into the zone and sped around the net. He saw no opportunity for a wrap around so he passed the puck to Kevan Miller at the point. Miller then fired a pass to his left and found Torey Krug. Krug grabbed the puck. He then floated a shot through traffic which ended up beating Frederik Andersen for a 1-0 Bruins lead.
Ultimately, it was a fluke goal. Andersen couldn’t really see the puck due to traffic in front of him. So, he was hoping that the puck would ricochet off of traffic instead of findings it way into the back of the net.
Later on in the first period, my MVP of game three, Tomas Plekanec carried the puck into the Bruins’ zone. Once past the blue line, he delivered a pass to Patrick Marleau. Marleau carried the puck to right face-off circle and found Plekanec right in front of Rask. At that point, Marleau delivered a pass but it went wide of Plekanec. After the pass went wide, Riley Nash of Boston and Mitch Marner were vying for the puck. Marner won the battle and delivered a pass from his knees to Marleau. Marleau then threw the puck to Plekanec and he was able to snipe the puck past Rask.
The Maple Leafs rebounded well after trailing 1-0, but it wasn’t enough.
Marchand Scores On Freddie
In the second period, the Bruins won a face-off draw in their own zone. Adam McQuaid grabbed the puck off of the draw and sling-shotted a pass down to Pastrnak. Pastrnak glided across the blue line and found Brad Marchand on his left side. Marchand collected the puck off a pass from Pastrnak and was able to get past Nikita Zaitsev. At that point, it was just Marchand versus Andersen. Marchand ended up firing a wrist shot past Andersen for a 2-1 Bruins lead.
Third Period Woes
In the third period at roughly the 16 minute mark, the Maple Leafs were planted in the Bruins’ zone. Zach Hyman had delivered a pass to Travis Dermott. Dermott fired a shot as soon as he got the puck. In my opinion, it was a stupid shot to take as David Krejci was right in front of him. Honestly, I don’t know what Dermott was thinking. Perhaps, Krejci would somehow move out of the way of the puck. Well Travis, that didn’t happen.
Instead, Krejci blocked the shot and fled down the ice. Krejci was skating in unison with Jake DeBrusk down the ice. Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, Roman Polak was the lone man trying to shut down the play. Polak wasn’t able to shut Krejci and DeBrusk down. Krejci delivered a pass to DeBrusk and at the same time, Polak dropped to the ice to attempt to block any shot coming towards Andersen. He wasn’t able to block the shot as DeBrusk fired a shot past Andersen to grab a 3-1 lead.
The Leafs came on hard, but Rask prevented them from tying the game.
Next: Emotions Make Us Foolish
Recap
While the Toronto Maple Leafs did out-play the Bruins last night, there were plenty of mistakes that led to Bruins’ goals. Luckily for the Maple Leafs, Nazem Kadri should be back from his suspension on Saturday evening in Boston. Hopefully, the presence of Kadri can give the Maple Leafs the spark that they need.
stats from NHL.com