In a scheduling quirk by the NHL, the Bruins and Maple Leafs played twice in six days in Boston. Boston embarrassed Toronto 7-2 on Saturday and last night, they let them hang around a little more but still dispatched them 5-2 at the TD Garden.
You almost feel bad for Phil Kessel, who was held scoreless in his first two games back in Boston. Then you remember how much money he's making to do nothing but score a few goals and you reassess things.
After stumbling around for much of the early season, the B's (16-9-5) have found their game to the tune of 8-1-1 in their last ten and first place in the Northeast Division.
Boston jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second period as three completely random players found the back of the net: Mark Stuart (from Johnny Boychuk, Daniel Paille), Derek Morris PPG (Zdeno Chara, Michael Ryder) and David Krejci.
Toronto (10-14-7) scored two quick goals in the third period to make it somewhat interesting. Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin were the two Eastern Europeans out of central casting to score for the Maple Leafs. Mark Recchi put it away with a pair of late goals for the Bruins.
With 2:37 left in the game, Recchi scored a power-play goal from Blake Wheeler and Krejci then he had an empty-netter from Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm.
Tuukka Rask continued to prove why it's Tuukka time as he improved to 9-2-2 with 32 saves. Injury or not, Tim Thomas has earned his seat on the bench and Rask deserves to be the starter for the time being. Kudos to Bruins coach Claude Julien for realizing this early.
The B's will travel to Long Island tomorrow night to take on No. 1 pick John Tavares and the Islanders.
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