Toronto Maple Leafs Lose to the Boston Bruins…Again

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a boogeyman.

Really, I don’t believe the final score (3-2) is necessary for the rest of this recap, because the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins for the third time this season, this time on “Hockey Night in Canada”.

More on the Bruins later, but the game itself was a very exciting one, with scoring chances all around and the Leafs playing their best first half of a game all year-long. The last half of the game was rough was rough, but the Leafs played a solid game that had a nice playoff atmosphere even though we aren’t even at the all-star break.

But as the Leafs (28-14-2) are now 14 points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning and with their lead over the Bruins cut to just two points, the Leafs are going to look back on this one with scorn and anger.

Solid Play, No So Solid Result

Early on this was one of the better performances the Leafs have had in the last month. They outshot the Bruins 26-19 over the first two periods and had chance after chance against a shoddy looking Bruins defence. Kasperi Kapanen added a solid two assists to his season giving him 27 points for the year and Mitch Marner and Andreas Johnsson found twine to bring their goal totals to 17 and 10, respectively.

Johnsson now has 20 points this season while Marner is only two shy of 60 points.

The issues came with just over five minutes left in the second, when the Bruins tied the game and would control play for the rest of the game, with David Pastrnak netting the game-winning goal with 15 seconds remaining in the middle frame. In the third the Leafs couldn’t find their footing, being outshot 10-6 and while Michael Hutchinson kept the Leafs in it, Tuukka Rask shut the door on a potential tying goal for the Leafs.

Please Heal Freddy

Whoever is torturing the voodoo doll of Andersen needs to stop, this is getting ridiculous.

Hutchinson has been fine as the Maple Leafs starting goalie. He’s 2-3-0 with a .914 SV% and 2.64 GAA, he even has a shutout! Those numbers qualify for the “fine-to-good” ratio. Unfortunately, that fine-to-good is not good enough this year, especially in a stacked Atlantic Division with the Bruins, Sabres and Canadiens sniffing at the Leafs’ heels.

With this in mind, the Maple Leafs need Frederik Andersen back between the pipes and fast. The problem is that while Andersen has recovered from his groin injury, he now has the flu, and is still a question mark for the Leafs’ next game against the Avalanche because the world is terrible and bad things happen to Danish goalies.

We Need To Talk About Boston

Last night was the final regular-season meeting between the Maple Leafs and Bruins. The Leafs went 1-3 against the Bruins this season, dropping both meetings at TD Garden in the process. Boston scored 16 goals (4.0 per game) compared to the 10 goals (2.5 per game) by Toronto.

I know it’s been a saying for a while, but the Boston Bruins are the boogeymen of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and God willing they will not meet in the playoffs again.

My heart, sanity, and daily life will not be able to function properly if the Maple Leafs fall foul to the Bruins in the playoffs again. I don’t want to listen to that appalling goal horn accompanied by “Zombie Nation” at TD Garden, where the Leafs are 8-10-2 in their last 20 regular season visits.

I don’t want Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley of NESN froth at the mouth over Brad Marchand’s grit and tenacity or the leadership quality of Zdeno Chara 38 times a broadcast.

Can you imagine if the Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and win the Stanley Cup in the same calendar year as the Red Sox winning the World Series and the Patriots potentially winning another Super Bowl? The world wouldn’t be able to handle it.

If all is right with the world, last night was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins will play until the 2019-2020 season, because a playoff series between the two will be too much to bear. Because all boogeymen remain around, no matter how hard you try to get rid of them, and the Leafs won’t be making the Bruins go away any time soon.

Thanks for reading!