Bruins dominate again
Leafs show some fight in Boston but little else, being swept in season series
While general manager Brad Treliving continued to try to make his team better, the Maple Leafs continued to show they have some work to do.
Especially if they meet the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.
Things are certainly trending in that direction and the Bruins have to be looking forward to that. They beat the Leafs 4-1 Thursday night at the TD Garden, sweeping the season series by winning all four games.
It was a rough and tumble game between teams that don’t like each other very much, something close to what you might expect in a playoff series with Bruins captain Brad Marchand in the middle of it all.
There was a mid-ice collision between Marchand and Matt Knies, with Knies getting the worst of it in the first period. He left the game and did not return, though it’s believed that it was for precautionary reasons and not serious. Knies suffered a concussion in the second round of the playoffs last season.
There was a second-period fight, with Tyler Bertuzzi getting repeated uppercuts on Parker Wotherspoon.
There was a knee-on-knee Noah Gregor hit on David Pastrnak that the Bruins didn’t like, causing another melee.
And Max Domi tried to get Marchand
to fight after Marchand hit Ilya Lyubushkin, though Marchand’s hit on Knies was probably on Domi’s mind, as well as Marchand’s hit on Timothy Liljegren earlier this season that cost the Leafs defenceman 17 games to a high ankle sprain. There was no pushback by the Leafs then, leading to more talk about the Leafs being soft. Domi later took on Charlie McAvoy.
Oh yeah, there was a game, too. And despite all the Leafs pushback, the result was the same.
Only Mitch Marner scored for the Leafs, while Joseph Woll stopped 21 of 25 Boston shots.
Marchand had two assists. on Pastrnak’s game-opener and Brandon Carlo’s game-closer. The Bruins have beaten the Leafs seven games in a row.
The Leafs had something of a redemption game Wednesday, beating the Buffalo Sabres 2-1. That was after the Sabres had beaten them twice already.
They were looking for something similar against Boston, having lost the first three meetings, including a 4-1 decision Monday in Toronto.
“We played them the other day, they got the best of us,” Leafs winger Calle Järnkrok said.
The Bruins Bruins continued to get the better of them in the first 40 minutes, when all the scoring occurred.
Things got off to a confusing start. Jake McCabe was getting a penalty already when he cross-checked Marchand after the whistle. He should have gotten two separate penalties. Instead, the referees called a roughing penalty on Knies, perhaps confusing McCabe’s No. 22 with Knies’ No. 23. The result was a Bruins 5-on-3 (instead of a 5-on-4 for four minutes). The Bruins scored, on a one-timer from Pastrnak.
Trent Frederic put the Bruins up 2-0 early in the second, gifted a breakaway when William Nylander mishandled the puck at the Boston blue line.
The Leafs tried to get back in it, with Marner scoring on a long shor while on the power play. But Morgan Geekie and Brandon Carlo scored late in the period to give the Bruins a three-goal lead.
Roster changes
Joel Edmundson, acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals earlier Thursday, did not make it to the game in time to play. But his new teammates were happy he was aboard.
“He’s a good player, good defenceman,” Järnkrok said. “We’re excited to have him.”
McCabe was back in the lineup after missing Wednesday’s game with a flu bug. It was at least the third time the bug cost Leafs players time off.
“It seems like that it keeps popping back up and getting guys who haven’t had it,” Leafs coach Sheddon Keefe said.
“You hope this is it.”