Leafs fall a step behind in loss to Bruins — again
The result was a familiar one for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thankfully for coach Mike Babcock and his players, the latest loss at TD Garden in Boston wasn’t at the end of April with the season on the line.
While the sting of a setback at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night didn’t carry the same amount of pain Toronto has experienced in the building in any of their recent Game 7s, the Leafs were a displeased bunch after losing for the second time in as many nights.
A 4-2 loss to the Bruins, coming 24 hours after the Leafs fell in overtime at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets, dropped the Leafs to a middling 5-4-2 through 11 games.
The Bruins, getting it done mostly with the best line in hockey and not a heck of a lot more, improved to 6-1-2.
Brett Ritchie scored the go-ahead goal for the Bruins at 6:35 of the third period, snapping the puck past Michael Hutchinson after an initial shot went off the skate of Leafs defenceman Justin Holl.
Ex-leaf Par Lindholm scored on a rebound with two minutes to play.
The Leafs couldn’t score on a late power play that came when Bruins forward Sean Kuraly got a high stick in the face of Andreas Johnsson.
Babcock had Mitch Marner on Auston Matthews’ right side, with Johnsson on the left. Truth be told, the Matthews-marner combo wasn’t exactly inspiring.
Matthews has eight goals and Marner 12 points, but both, as Babcock might say, have another level to get to. Certainly, they didn’t impact the game the way the Patrice Bergeron trio did for the Bruins.
The Leafs had some spurts during which they couldn’t control the puck with authority and had trouble moving it up the ice.
There have been inconsistencies that come with a group that’s trying to jell (and one which is without captain John Tavares, as well as Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott), and the record shows as much.
Hutchinson, in his fourth appearance of the season, didn’t play poorly, but at times had issues with trapping the puck.
GAME ON
The Leafs sandwiched a Brad Marchand goal in the second period to go into the intermission tied 2-2. Kasperi Kapanen scored on a one-timer on a pass from Alex Kerfoot at 4:23, and at 12:54 during a Toronto power play, Kerfoot slammed a Kapanen pass behind Tuukka Rask. On the Kerfoot goal, a smart cross-ice feed from William Nylander to Kapanen got the play started … Marchand scored at 6:09 after a miscue involving Hutchinson and Tyson Barrie, as the defenceman didn’t pick up the puck when Hutchinson tried to give him a short pass … The Leafs were down 1-0 for the eighth time in their first 11 games. “It’s not a trend we want to keep going,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said a couple of hours before the opening faceoff. “That’s an area of focus for us.” For now, it will continue to be an area of focus.
Boston thought it had taken a 1-0 lead at 10:48 of the first, when David Pastrnak blasted a shot past Hutchinson after Marchand dug the puck out from a bunch of Leafs. Alas, the goal did not count, as Babcock challenged for offside and was proven correct when replays showed Bergeron was in the Leafs end ahead of the puck. … Jason Spezza was a healthy scratch, with Nic Petan inserted into the Leafs lineup. On the blue line, Kevin Gravel played in place of Martin Marincin.