Toronto Maple Leafs Lose to NHL’s Top Team, the Boston Bruins

The Toronto Maple Leafs took on both the Boston Bruins in a busy evening for the NHL that saw fourteen games played total, including this one involving the top two teams in the league.

It was a close game and hard fought battle, but ultimately the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Bruins as they couldn’t get a break for trying.

The score may have been 4-3, but it was a tie game virtually right to the end until the Bruins were lucky enough to slip one past Leafs Goaltender Matt Murray, and as the numbers show, it easily could have gone either way.

5-on-5 the Bruins had a slight edge in shot attempts 52-49, and scoring chances, 30-29, while the Leafs won the Expected Goals battle with a 50.93 xGF%. (NaturalStatTrick). Games do not get closer than this.

Michael Bunting was the star for the Leafs with a goal and an assist, good for two points, with Pierre Engvall and Auston Matthews, in his first game back since missing two with an undisclosed injury, scoring the other two goals for Toronto.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Boston Bruins

A recurring theme for the Toronto Maple Leafs is the horrendous officiating that has plagued the team for years, costing them valuable points in the standings, while the series against Tampa Bay last year was lost in large part due to poor officiating.

The refereeing this year has been nothing short of a disgrace, and fans witnessed it once again last night when Linus Ullmark threw his stick on a Mitch Marner shot and no call was made.

The correct call would have seen the officials penalize Ullmark and grant Marner a penalty shot, but that didn’t happen.

In the game against Detroit the other night, fans witnessed Michael Bunting take a blatant high stick from Ben Chiarot hard enough to knock Bunting’s helmet off, but no penalty was called on that play either, despite the referee having clear vision of the play

Afterwards an infuriated Bunting had a few choice words for the referee somewhat akin to those Morgan Rielly used just a few days ago in the game against the Nashville Predators.

This is not an isolated incident for Bunting either, as during game 2 of the playoffs last year against Tampa, Bunting took a phantom “slashing” penalty that initiated a similar response from the feisty winger.

With the loss last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs are now tied with the New Jersey Devils for third place overall, with 59 points.

The Leafs are now eleven points behind the league leading Boston Bruins, and four points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who now have 54 points after winning their game against St. Louis last night.

At this point Toronto is almost guaranteed to meet the Lightning in the first round of the playoffs again, and fans couldn’t be more excited for a re-match against the recent two time Stanley Cup champions.