Post-Game Breakdown: Bruins at Toronto
Final: Toronto 4, Boston 3 (OT)
The Bruins earned a point on the road with their best forward and top defenseman out injured. Normally that would be a decent night’s work. Tonight it wasn’t. The Bruins blew three separate one-goal leads and couldn’t put away a Toronto team that has the second-worst record in the league. The Leafs’ advantage over last-place Edmonton is now six points, making this a double whammy for the B’s, who own Toronto’s first-round pick – a pick that now has less of a chance of turning out to be the top overall selection thanks to this loss. As for the Bruins’ own playoff hopes, they sit back in the eighth and final spot in the East again, two points behind Montreal, which beat Tampa Bay 5-3 tonight, and three points ahead of the Rangers.
Records: Boston 29-24-12, 70 points; Toronto 21-33-12, 54 points
Revisiting the Three Keys for the B’s:
1. Show some heart – Was that a flicker of a pulse? Nope. The Bruins remain flat lined. They scored three goals, which is usually about a week’s worth for this team, but still showed little life and almost no physical presence. After their embarrassing lack of response to the cheap shot on Marc Savard on Sunday, tonight was a chance to show some passion and a willingness to stick together and stand up for each other. Instead, the Bruins were out-hit 33-22 and allowed Tim Thomas to be run over repeatedly with no repercussions. Looks like this team won’t be satisfied until every decent player they have ends up on the injured list.
2. Step up for Savvy – One line made an effort, as the trio of Patrice Bergeron, Marco Sturm and Mark Recchi accounted for all three Bruins goals and combined for seven points, 10 shots and a plus-6 rating. Pity they didn’t get much help, as the other “scoring line” of David Krejci, Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler had no points, two shots and were a combined minus-8, while nine other shot attempts were blocked or missed the net. Vladimir Sobotka, Miroslav Satan and Milan Lucic also managed just three shots, no points and were a combined minus-3.
3. Shut down Kessel, again – Phil Kessel finally got his first point against his old club in his fifth game against Boston, though it took some campaigning between periods to get a scoring change and an assist added to Kessel on Toronto’s second goal. He still finished a minus-1, but did create a number of scoring chances, including a pair of partial breakaways late in the third. He finished with four shots and had seven others blocked and two miss the net in 21:45.
Key Play of the Game:
The main reason the Bruins even got a point out of this one was Thomas, who came up especially big on Kessel’s back-to-back late breakaways. After Thomas stoned Kessel when he caught Dennis Wideman up ice with 4:16 to play, Kessel again took advantage of Wideman, getting behind him and coming in alone with 2:20 left in regulation. This time Thomas stacked the pads and made the stop despite losing his mask as Kessel and Wideman crashed into him, keeping the game tied at 3-3 and allowing the Bruins to at least salvage one point.
Fight Card:
There were no fights in this one, with the closest thing a brief shoving match between Wideman and Mikhail Grabovski late in the third. Other than that, the Bruins were once again on their best behavior. Apparently it’s OK to take hooking and holding penalties all they want, but heaven forbid the Bruins actually show some emotion and intensity with a scrap that could possibly put them short-handed, or you know, end up with matching majors like 99 percent of fights.
Flynn’s Finest:
As mentioned, the new top line of Bergeron, Sturm and Recchi at least showed up for this one. Bergeron had a goal and an assist, along with two hits, three takeaways and won 14 of 21 face-offs (67 percent) and was a plus-2 in 19:45. Sturm added his 20th goal – off a perfect one-touch pass from Recchi – as well as an assist and a team-high five shots while finishing a plus-2 in 19;14. Recchi had a goal and two assists with three shots and a blocked shot to finish plus-2 in 18:04. … Mark Stuart was a minus-1 and took a minor for tripping that gave Toronto a 5-on-3, but also played a season-high 24:15 and had a monster eight blocked shots. … Dennis Seidenberg also picked up his first point as a Bruin with an assist to go with six blocked shots of his own and three hits in 26:45. … Jeff Penner played a simple game in his NHL debut, making no glaring mistakes as he finished even with three hits in 9:17. … The penalty kill remained as effective as always, as Toronto was 0 for 3 on the power play, including a 50-second two-man advantage. The Leafs had just four power-play shots, while Boston managed a pair of shots while short-handed.
Flynn’s Sin Bin:
Other than the Bergeron line, the rest of the forwards contributed little offensively. Krejci created a few chances, including a 2-on-1 with Wheeler with 10 seconds left in regulation, but his pass went off Wheeler’s skate. Krejci finished a minus-3 with no shots in 20:20, and won just 7 of 15 draws (47 percent) for good measure. Ryder was also a minus-3 with no shots in 13:51, while Wheeler was minus-2 with two shots in 17:33, but also took a bad offensive-zone hooking penalty in the first. Ryder also took out Thomas on the winning goal. He was attempting to make a diving backcheck to break up a 2-on-1, but he ended up sliding into Thomas and Nikolai Kulemin flipped the puck into the open net for the win. … Wideman had one of his worst games of the season, which is saying something considering the miserable year he’s had. He did have an assist and five blocked shots, but was a minus-2 with three giveaways. He, along with Stuart, failed to clear a rebound in the crease before Toronto’s goal to tie it at 3-3 at 7:13 of the third. He also screened Thomas on Toronto’s second goal and allowed Kessel to get behind him for two late breakaways. In addition, Wideman fell down in the offensive zone and lost control of the puck, then didn’t get back in the play as Toronto’s ensuing odd-man rush led to the winning goal in overtime. Worst of all, Wideman was the closest Bruin late in the second when Luca Caputi ran over Thomas. Rather than go after Caputi, Wideman instead chose to whine to the ref looking for a call. No one else came to Thomas’ aid either, not then or on any of the several other occasions when the Leafs crashed his crease with impunity. Despite all the miscues, Wideman ended up playing a game-high 29:13. Someone had to pick up the slack in ice-time with Zdeno Chara out injured, but wasn’t there anyone better than Wideman? … Matt Hunwick wasn’t much better, again a common theme this year. He was a minus-1, didn’t get back in time to prevent a 2-on-1 that led to Toronto’s first goal by former Bruin Wayne Primeau and also had a brutal giveaway early when he threw the puck up the middle blindly from behind his own net. Carl Gunnarsson picked off the pass and beat Thomas with a shot, but it clanged off the post. … The fourth line of Steve Begin, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille, the supposed “energy line”, managed just one hit (by Paille). … Lucic hit a post with a shot through Luke Schenn’s legs, but didn’t get any shots on net. He was also a minus-1, took a bad hooking penalty and his turnover led to Primeau’s goal on the 2-on-1.
Next: The Bruins continue their seven-game road trip at Philadelphia on Thursday.
Tags: Toronto
