Bruins Burn Leafs In Boston

It was an even more tumultuous than normal last two days in the world of the Toronto Maple Leafs with Bryan McCabe’s resurgence declared nothing but a mirage after committing a horrendous giveaway that directly led to the Montreal Canadiens’ game winning goal on Tuesday night, not to mention the news of embarrassing pictures involving Jiri Tlusty circulating on the internet. All this turmoil proved to be too much for the Maple Leafs as they appeared to regress back to early season bad habits in a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Boston got off to a quick start when Marc Savard scored nineteen seconds into the game. Miscommunication between Mats Sundin and Andy Wozniewski following a draw in the Maple Leaf zone created a turnover which the Bruins’ Glen Murray capitalized on by finding Savard in the slot who wired a shot past Andrew Raycroft. Kyle Wellwood tied the game with his third goal of the season midway through the first period but the Maple Leafs came back with a lackluster effort on the ensuing shift allowing Marco Strum to give Boston back the lead.

Glen Metropolit increased the Bruins’ lead to 3-1 midway through the second period when he jammed in a loose puck in the goalmouth after fighting off Bryan McCabe. Alexei Ponikarovsky brought the Maple Leafs back to within one goal just two minutes later. In the remaining eight minutes of the second, the Maple Leafs sustained two lengthy shifts of pressure in Boston’s zone but were unable to even the game at three goals.

To begin the third period, they could not continue the momentum generated at the end of the second and allowed Peter Schaefer to score twice within the first six minutes to build the Bruins lead to three goals. The Andrew Raycroft that surprised everyone with a stunning performance in a 3-0 shutout of the Buffalo Sabres last Friday was nowhere to be found in this game. Instead the Maple Leafs’ netminder looked much more like the Raycroft who lacked confidence and allowed questionable goals earlier this season.

Despite throwing nineteen shots toward Bruins’ netminder Tim Thomas in the final period, the Maple Leafs allowed Boston to score twice on seven shots and suffered another third period collapse in a game that was within reach after forty minutes.

Discipline was one of the major positives for the Maple Leafs to come out of this game. Toronto took only one minor penalty although they struggled with the man advantage scoring only once on five opportunities. Though the power play has looked more dangerous of late with the return of Kyle Wellwood, it still is not producing at a rate of success anywhere near last year’s level of 17%. The Maple Leafs currently sit with the second worst power play in the NHL – ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers - scoring at a 12% success rate.

The Maple Leafs will not have an easy getting back in the win column as they will host their archrivals – the Ottawa Senators – on Saturday night at Air Canada Center.