The famous saying that has been attributed to New York Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra “It’s deja vu all over again” is the first thing that comes to mind about the Toronto Maple Leafs’ second 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins in four days.
There were a lot of similarities in the two games. The timing of the goals was different and the exact order they were scored varied slightly. However, the result was the same – exactly.
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The Ugly
As in the last game, a lot of the ugliness started early. In this game, the ugliness came in the form of two crosschecks by Jake McCabe to the throats of Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand on the same play. Both crosschecks were extremely ugly. How the referees called the penalties was very confusing. All McCabe got out of the deal was two minutes for interference. As well, somehow Matthew Knies was also called for roughing leaving the Maple Leafs with a five-on-three penalty to kill.
The announcers and analysts on the broadcast speculated that Knies’ penalty was a case of mistaken identity and mixing up the numbers 22 and 23. Boston would score the opening goal on the five-on-three power play.
The Penalties Assessed Were Odd
I agree with guest panellist Bob McKenzie. If the call was going to be minors for both infractions, McCabe should have received back-to-back penalties leaving Toronto down one man for four minutes instead of two for three minutes. But, in my eyes what McCabe did was worthy of a five-minute major that also comes with a game misconduct. That would have left the Maple Leafs one player short for a full five minutes. However, I would have also given Debrusk two minutes for roughing when he came after McCabe.
Regardless of how I would have made the calls, the Maple Leafs would have been much better if McCabe had just kept his stick to himself. It will be interesting to see if there will be any supplementary discipline handed out to McCabe. There was no talk about that during the game. However, it would not surprise me if there was.
In the end, the Maple Leafs were down a goal early and forced once again to play from behind.
The Second Ugly Incident
The second ugly incident happened 12 ½ minutes into the first period. Following a shot on the net by Auston Matthews, Marchand comes out of the corner of the Boston zone and blind-sides Matthew Knies with a head-on body check in front of the Boston goal. The puck was nowhere in the vicinity.
Marchand’s shoulder makes solid contact with Knies’ head and Knies goes down in obvious pain. He gets up and skates slowly to the Toronto bench. It appeared as if Knies might have been favouring his right shoulder as he headed to the bench crouched over. Knies left the game and did not return.
There was no news either during or after the game what the aftereffect of Marchand’s hit was, whether it was the shoulder or a possible concussion. Head coach Sheldon Keefe did not address it after the game. We will have to wait for word.
Did Marchand Try to Hurt Knies?
As for Marchand, there was lots of speculation about whether or not the hit was accidental or on purpose. I’m with Jeff O’Neill on this though. This is Brad Marchand we are talking about. He does things like this all the time. I watched the play over, slowed it down, and watched Marchand’s path and where he was looking in the moments before the hit. He might not have originally set out to target Knies. But he did see their paths were going to cross and that Knies was watching the play of the puck. In my opinion, there was malicious intent on Marchand’s behalf. I would hope that NHL player safety would at least look at it.
The Bad
I realize it was the second game of back-to-backs. Keefe stated after the game they did not get to their hotel until 3:00 AM. On top of that the Maple Leafs are dealing with another flu bug going through the locker room. But, for the second game in a row, the Bruins came out with all the jump in the first period. Toronto was lucky to be down just a goal at the end of the period.
Here is a crazy stat and the major reason why the Maple Leafs lost both games. I mentioned the fact that only one forward had a point in their first game this week. That was John Tavares. It happened again in this game. This time it was Mitch Marner when he scored at the 7:56 mark of the second period. There was one assist awarded on the goal and that was to Timothy Liljegren. In two full games, with the scoring power the Maple Leafs have, the Bruins limited all twelve of the Toronto forwards to a single point in each game.
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Joseph Woll and Keefe’s Decision To Start Him
I was surprised when I heard that Woll was the starter in the first Boston game this week. He was coming off of a lengthy injury and had played one game in the AHL and one game against a bad team (Arizona) in the NHL. Granted he did play well in both of those games. But I thought that putting Woll in goal against an opponent as formidable as the Bruins was a little like throwing him to the wolves.
Since Ilya Samsonov returned from his “reset,” he has been one of the best goalies in the league. I was thinking before the previous three games that I would have gone Samsonov at home versus the Bruins, Woll vs the Sabres, and come back with Samsonov.
While I don’t blame Woll for the losses, the two goals he allowed came at key times in each game. I thought he should have stopped them. To be honest, if your forwards are not going to produce more than one point collectively in each game it doesn’t matter who was in goal. You were going to lose.
Florida or Boston Here We Come
With less than 20 games to go in the regular season unless something very unusual happens it appears the Maple Leafs are destined to finish in third place in the Atlantic Division. They are nine points behind Boston and ten back of the Florida Panthers. Both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Detroit Red Wings are eight points back of Toronto. The Maple Leafs will open the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs in either Boston or Florida. That thought is not very comforting either way.
The Good
For close to ten minutes of the second period, the Maple Leafs had some life and looked like they might manage a different outcome in this game. Marner had scored to bring Toronto to within a goal at 2-1and Toronto was starting to take control of the play. It all went away pretty quickly when the Bruins scored two goals in just over a minute late in the period.
The Maple Leafs had the newly acquired 6-foot-5 and 220-pound Joel Edmundson in the house to watch the game. If playoff experience counts for anything, Edmundson won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues and was part of the Montreal Canadiens team that made it to the cup final. He averaged over 23 minutes a game in the postseason for the Habs.
Unfortunately, he is a lefty with little experience playing on the right, where the Maple Leafs are the weakest. But, it does give Toronto four defensemen in Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, Simon Benoit, and Jake McCabe who are physical and can make life in front of the Maple Leafs’ net easier for whoever is the goalie and miserable for the opposition.
What’s Next?
Finding out how badly Knies is hurt and what happens with the trade deadline is on top of the pile. Will GM Brad Treliving try to add another defenseman or another forward to the mix?
After that, the Maple Leafs travel to Montreal to take on the Canadiens on Saturday night. They then have four days off to acclimate any newcomers to the team, for Keefe to figure out his optimum lineup for the final stretch of the regular season and get ready for the playoffs.
Exciting times.
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