It’s the same old story with Bruins
BOSTON— Shawn Matthias said the loss stung. Dion Phaneuf recounted how disappointing it was.
Based on their reaction to a 2-0 loss Saturday night to the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs certainly sound as if they believe they belong in the playoff race.
“It sucks losing,” said Matthias, who had three breakaways thwarted by Boston goalie Tuukka Rask.
“We have to get back into it here. We need all the points we can get. It would have been a really good road trip if we’d have gotten that win.
“We feel confident as a group. We’ve had some success.
“But that one stings.”
Between Rask and another superb performance by James Reimer, the Leafs and Bruins were deadlocked at 0-0 for more than 55 minutes. It looked like Toronto might steal a point, maybe two, in a game dominated by Boston.
But a Zdeno Chara slapshot at 16:17 of the third, followed by a Brad Marchand empty-netter, meant Toronto’s recent climb up the standings came to a halt.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the standings and where we are and where they are,” Phaneuf said. “That was a big two points. It’s disappointing letting them win it late. We had some chances. How many posts did we hit? Bottom line we didn’t get two points.”
Even though the NHL season is barely one-quarter done, there is an urgency to the Leafs’ game. Players are smart enough to know that a team in the playoff hunt is more likely to be kept together. And the season is more fun when you win, as the Leafs have found out this month while cobbling together a 6-3-2 record after a 1-7-2 October.
“We dug ourselves a bit of a hole early, but the effort was there,” Pha- neuf said. “We fought back. We clawed back into a spot. We have to keep taking steps forward. We did a lot of good things the last three weeks. It’s disappointing not to come out of here with points.”
The Leafs will take Sunday off. They face the Bruins at home on Monday.
The Leafs have gained respect around the league not just for their recent hot streak but for playing a more disciplined brand of the game under Mike Babcock.
That has helped Reimer to a degree. He gave up quite a few juicy rebounds on Saturday night, but with so many Leafs playing close to his net, it means his teammates are able to clear the rebounds away.
The Leafs’ recent hot streak, how- ever, may be disguising some troubling trends: While they started the year outshooting their opponents, they are now regularly being outshot.
Such was the case against Boston, whose relentless and speedy attack gave the Leafs fits trying to recover the puck. The Bruins outshot Toronto 37-22. It was the 13th time this season the Leafs have been outshot.
The Leafs’ advanced metrics — specifically in 5-on-5 situations — have dropped precipitously. Where once the Leafs were fourth in the league in a measurement of shots, blocked shots and shot attempts, they had dropped to the bottom third by the time the puck dropped Saturday.
“There are lots of things, lots of areas that we have to clean up,” Matthias said. “We’re still getting better. It’s early on. We have to lower the shots against, and get more shots on their net and spend more time in their end.”
The Leafs and Bruins have bigger rivalries with other teams, Montreal especially. But there is history between these two. This game, though, was the first of a new era. The Bruins are in a bit of a rebuild. The Leafs are doing one from the ground up.
Adding to the rivalry is the friendship between coaches Mike Babcock and Claude Julien, roommates during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“He snores at night,” Julien recalled before the game.
“It’s the other way around,” Babcock said. “I had to go to bed first just so I could get to sleep, for crying out loud. So let’s get that straight.”