BRUINS BEATEN
Leafs top Boston for first time in nine tries,
You knew it couldn’t be going much better for the Maple Leafs when Frazer McLaren was suddenly taking a turn as the Air Canada Centre’s artist in residence.
McLaren is the six-foot-five enforcer whose masterpieces are most often abstract splatterings of fresh blood on white ice. But less than two minutes into the third period of Saturday night’s Bruins-Leafs match, McLaren was confined to a tinier canvas, handling a puck at a goalmouth with a smidgeon of time and zero space. McLaren had the presence of mind to dash off a shinny-game trick shot, pulling the puck from behind his left skate and through his legs.
Sid Crosby himself couldn’t have done better. Boston goaltender Anton Khudobin couldn’t have done much worse. Perhaps confused by the fancy dangling, Khudobin reacted like a catcher flummoxed by a knuckleball. He whiffed at the puck with his glove. He failed to cover the five hole with his stick. He and the Bruins watched helplessly as the puck split the wickets.
If you were among the 19,236 on hand, perhaps you heard the collective giggle from Leafs Nation. McLaren’s goal turned out to be the winner in Toronto’s 3-2 victory. On a night when the goon played the skill guy, the Leafs beating the Bruins was a bit like a gang of schoolyard weaklings suddenly finding the strength to out-bully the big lugs who’d been stealing their lunch money for years.
The game marked Toronto’s first win over the Bruins in nine tries and nearly two calendar years; Boston had won the previous eight meetings by a combined score of 41-12. So forget, for a moment, that the Bruins dominated possession for long stretches, outshooting the home club 33-13.
With the truncated season heading into its third trimester — just 16 games of 48 remain — nobody in Toronto is about to get picky about how the Leafs produce a long-awaited post-season berth.
“It’s just one win,” said winning goaltender James Reimer. “It can’t be blown out of proportion like we won the Stanley Cup. . . .
“We’re happy about it and obviously there’s a bit of a backstory. But it’s just one win.”
In the lead-up to the game, Toronto forward Joffrey Lupul, serving the back end of a two-game suspension on Saturday, had spoken of the importance of taking the next step by competing against established Eastern elites like Boston and Pittsburgh. Teammate Nazem Kadri, meanwhile, had pointed out the similarities in the makeup of the respective rosters.
“It’s almost like we’re playing ourselves out there,” Kadri said the other day.
Well, themselves except for Boston’s Stanley Cup pedigree, its hulking mix of depth and speed and six-foot-nine Zdeno Chara locking down the back end.
But close enough. When the Leafs are playing well they’re a reasonable knock-off of an elite squad. For one night, they out-Bostoned Boston. For one night they avoided being laid to ruin by the Bruins. Naturally, it was the fourth line that deserved top billing.
“You can’t rely on the top lines to score every night. And they aren’t obviously relying on us to score,” said McLaren of linemates Colton Orr and Jay McClement. “But if we can chip in every couple of games, it’s huge for the team.”
There’s another game in the offing in which we’ll learn more about this emergent Maple Leaf squad. Monday’s rematch against the black and yellow at the TD Garden should provide a telling glimpse of whether Saturday’s game was a case of situational good fortune or something closer to a best-on-best triumph.
The argument could be made that Toronto caught the Bruins snooz-
“I finally got one on my stick. It turned out to be kind of a pretty goal.” FRAZER MCLAREN LEAFS ENFORCER, ON HIS GAME-WINNING GOAL
ing. Tuukka Rask, their usual starting goalie, had the night off in favour of Khudobin. Rask was roused in relief after McLaren’s goal chased Khudobin. And the Bruins applied massive pressure until game’s end, coming within a goal with 1:16 to go to leave the Leafs, in the words of play-by-play man Joe Bowen, “hanging on by their thumbs.” Still, the local heroes did just enough to win on Saturday night; they’ve been doing just enough to stay in the thick of the playoff race all season. On Saturday the website SportsClubStats.com listed the Leafs’ probability of making the post-season at 92.1 per cent. Firmly ensconced in sixth place in the Eastern standings, they’re five points clear of the ninth-place Rangers. Goals by Nazem Kadri and Mikhail Grabovski gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead. But it was McLaren’s nifty move that produced the clincher. The big man’s previous two goals this season were hardly comparative works of art. McLaren recalled that he got credit for one that banked in off his leg, and another that caromed off his chest. “I finally got one on my stick,” he said with a laugh. “It turned out to be kind of a pretty goal.” Considering the opponent, considering the backstory, you can make an argument it was the prettiest in Leafland all year.