Nothing is worse than a prideful Bostonian, and the Toronto Maple Leafs unleashed a swarm of them on Saturday night.
The defence decided to miss the road trip to Boston as Frederik Andersen was pulled after allowing six goals, his most of the season thus far, and the Toronto Maple Leafs were embarrassed 6-3 at TD Garden on Saturday.
Watching this game was easily the most painful viewing experience so far this season. Worse than the 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators back in October and far more excruciating than the 5-1 loss to the Bruins the Leafs suffered back on November 10th.
Yes, they may have lost by three goals compared to the four-goal loss in November, but last night was the Toronto Maple Leafs at their flat-footed worst.
Somebody Cover Somebody!
Andersen is not completely off the hook for the team’s performance, he allowed a couple of softies including an unscreened wrist shot from the point by Torey Krug. But I would argue that Freddy gets a pass for his team allowing a three-on-one that featured Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak or the four members of the penalty kill doing their own rendition of the “mannequin challenge” allowing David Backes to wrist a shot right past Andersen.
It was not the best night for the defence, which is unfortunate because the Leafs were only down 1-0 after the first, but they just couldn’t get anything past new Maple Leafs boogeyman Jaroslav Halak until the game was out of reach.
Zach Hyman Does a Dumb Thing
About midway through the third, Zach Hyman, clearly frustrated with how the game had gone, delivered a late hit on Bruins d-man Charlie McAvoy. At this point in the game, it was 6-2, and the puck left McAvoy’s stick three seconds before Hyman actually laid the hit.
The hit was made worse as McAvoy’s head collided with the boards, creating a whiplash effect on his neck.
Now I am all for physical play in hockey. Hits are a part of the sport and as long as you don’t aim directly or the head delivers the hit late it makes the game more exciting. But with everything going on in hockey regarding hits, Ryan Reaves’ late hit on Tom Wilson in the Vegas-Washington game from earlier in the week springs to mind, Hyman laying that hit was arguably the stupidest thing he could have done.
It doesn’t matter if he hit him in the shoulder and not the head, it was egregiously late and is currently under review by the Department of Player Safety.
Zach Hyman's late hit on Charlie McAvoy is still under review by @NHLPlayerSafety. Hyman was assessed an interference major on the ice, and didn't appear to make contact with McAvoy's head, but there's still discussion about possible supplemental discipline.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 9, 2018
The Haunting of TD Garden
Something must be haunting TD Garden. The Bent Neck Lady, Toby the Demon, Pennywise, it’s the only way to explain how the Toronto Maple Leafs always lay an egg when they arrive in Boston.
The Bruins and Maple Leafs have now met 673 times. Of those, 57 have been at TD Garden, and the Leafs sport a dismal 22-28-0(Ties)-7 record when visiting. They allow 3.18 goals per game and score only 2.54 to try to counteract that.
For reference, the only current NHL arena where the Leafs have played more than 50 games and have a worse record is the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, where the Leafs are 15-32-3-6.
You Can Be Mad Leafs Nation
Maybe I’m bitter about the fact I had to listen to the NESN commentators call the game last night, who gush over every little thing the Bruins do or defend Marchand for being the closest thing to a real-life Remy from Ratatouille we have, but that loss was rough. Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs are 20-9-1, but this would have been a nice way to assert dominance over a bitter rival.
Instead, this win gives the Bruins something they can use as momentum trying to get back into the Atlantic Division race. This coming on a night where the Tampa Bay Lightning walloped the Colorado Avalanche 7-1, extending their lead to six points on the Leafs. Not a great night to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
Thanks for reading!