Maybe Someday Toronto Will Beat Boston, But It Didn't Happen Tonight

However you want to explain it, the Boston Bruins completely owned the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2011.

The B's (16-7-1) capped off four straight wins over the Maple Leafs (14-10-2) so far this season with a 4-1 triumph tonight at TD Garden.

Two more points continued Boston's streak of grabbing points in 14 consecutive games while ensuring that Toronto won't get another crack to break this pathetic, one-way series (23-6) until March 6, 2012.

Tuukka Rask (4-4-1) is taking advantage of his increased playing time; he made 21 saves this evening for his fourth win in his last five starts. Is it too early to start singing the same song I have the last few years about Rask and Tim Thomas? The one about how they are the NHL's best goaltending duo? Great.

The Maple Leafs finally got their star goaltender James Reimer (4-1-1) back after he missed almost a month and a half with a mysterious neck injury. He made 26 saves but the B's still handed him his first loss.

My best possible explanation for the Bruins' domination of the Leafs is that they are a terrible matchup for them. Boston is deep and physical with outstanding goalies. Toronto has one superb line but they seem to struggle against tight checking teams that don't give up soft goals or too many odd-man rushes.

After a scoreless and pretty dull first period, things opened up with David Krejci (5th of the season) scoring at 4:20 on a beautiful feed from Nathan Horton. Milan Lucic (2 assists) had the other helper as the suddenly richer Krejci one-timed it past Reimer.

Mikhail Grabovski (7th of the season) tied it 48 seconds later with an absolute bomb over Rask's shoulder from a tough angle. Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, that was about their only highlight from this contest.

Chris Kelly (10th of the season) got the game-winner at 13:11 after a instinctive pass from Rich Peverley. Andrew Ference had the other assist as Kelly broke to the net and Peverley found him in tight to the goal.

Johnny Boychuk (3rd of the season) added an insurance goal on the same shift that he delivered a big hit too. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand assisted on the Johnny Rocket (copyright Jack Edwards).

Horton (7th of the season) had the last goal at 14:36, a nice wrist shot from Krejci and Lucic. All that remained was a random fight between Bruins defenseman Joe Corvo and Maple Leafs forward/greatest name in the world nominee Joey Crabb.

Steven Kampfer and Jordan Caron were recalled after the game which is a good idea since this should be a taxing upcoming week for the B's. They have four games in six days starting on Monday with three on the road.

The top two teams in the Eastern Conference square off in Pittsburgh on Monday night as the Bruins take on the Penguins. Boston travels to Winnipeg for a back-to-back game on Tuesday.

Follow @RichSlate


Tweet

This man will helped break a 39-year drought, or something

I don't know which was more disappointing last night: the Boston Bruins' 4-3 gag reflex loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs or the trade that they made following the game.

I'm sure Chris Kelly is a decent player and a good guy but he got caught in the Bruins' impeccable timing as all day there were rumors of Toronto defenseman Tomas Kaberle getting dealt to the Bruins. He would sure up the power-play (a big weakness) and give us a puck-moving defenseman which makes us all weak in the knees.

Sadly, Boston's front office doesn't know how to make a big splash properly so even if that or something grander is in the works, you have to do that first. Trading for Kelly, a defensive center from the Ottawa Senators, for the minor fee of a second-round draft pick means nothing.

Kelly will be on the third line but explain how he's any different from Gregory Campbell or Daniel Paille?

Moving on. You had to know that ex-Bruin Phil Kessel was due for a goal against his former team. It turns out, he doubled his pleasure and fun as he and teammate Mikhail Grabovski both put in a pair of goals in Toronto's (24-27-6) comeback victory over Boston (31-9-7) at TD Garden.

The Bs lost their third straight and this one was inexcusable since they were playing a bad team and had a 3-2 lead with under seven minutes left in regulation.

Paille gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 8:04 of the first period when his pass deflected off a Maple Leaf skate. His second of the season was assisted by Mark Stuart and Campbell.

Kessel tied it up and broke his extended slump when he batted a rebound out of mid-air at 17:22 in the first period. It was his 20th of the season, on the power play from Dion Phaneuf and Joffrey Lupul.

Grabovski made it 2-1 at 4:35 in the second period from Mike Komisarek and Carl Gunnarson.

Campbell tied it up at 18:34 in the second period with a power-play goal (his 8th of the season) from Brad Marchand and Michael Ryder. Like Kessel before him, Campbell showed his quick hands by batting it out of the air.

Patrice Bergeron put Boston ahead 3-2 at 9:08 in the third period and his 20th of the season looked like it would be a fitting game-winner. Adam McQuaid and Mark Recchi assisted but Bergeron did the grunt work by fighting through a hit and putting the rebound past Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer (32 saves).

However, Tim Thomas (24 saves) and the Bruins couldn't keep the lead as Kessel (another power-play goal, from Lupul and Kaberle) and Grabovski (with 1:01 left in regulation, from Clarke MacArthur and Phaneuf) each undressed Boston defenders with individual moves and beat Thomas.

It was a bitter loss, one of the worst of the season, and that rancid taste was just added by the intrigue and then disappointment in the Bruins' trade. There's 12 more days (Feb. 28) before the trade deadline and it's clear this team needs more skill to get anywhere in the playoffs which is all that matters.

Boston will play six straight games on the road, starting with a back-to-back in Long Island tomorrow vs. the Islanders then Friday night in Ottawa (Chris Kelly night?).

Time for the Bruins to play better and beat all these crappy teams.

Tuukka Rask and Nathan Horton emerge off a missing persons poster and help the Bruins put a bow on a solid road trip

It wasn't always pretty (namely the two third period leads that disappeared and led to shootout losses) but after last night's 2-1 win in Toronto, the Boston Bruins wrapped up a pivotal five-game road trip with a 3-0-2 record.

In the process, they just might have saved head coach Claude Julien's job while also showing that they're still a team to be feared in the Eastern Conference.

The biggest developments out of the Air Canada Centre last night were the reemergence of two Bruins (21-11-6) who have been scuffling (to be kind): Tuukka Rask and Nathan Horton.

Rask has not been himself all season and it hasn't helped that Tim Thomas has been playing out of his mind so his playing time has been sporadic at best. The Fin had 36 saves last night, shutting down the Maple Leafs (14-20-4) which is always doubly nice since we still own one more first round draft pick from them (having already used their last first round pick on Tyler Seguin) in the ill-fated Phil Kessel deal.

Mikhail Grabovski gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 14:08 in the first period after a flipped pass from Luke Schenn led to a breakaway.

Horton answered at 7:56 in the second period with his first goal in nine games. He was assisted by Dennis Seidenberg as the husband of a Playboy playmate (really) worked into the middle of the offensive zone and ripped one of his hard snap shots, that for once didn't ring off a post.

Probably the third guy from the invisible trio, Marc Savard, also stepped up with the game-winning goal less than eight minutes later. With Milan Lucic (who assisted) in front of Toronto goaltender James Reimer, Savard took a pass from Horton at the blue line and fired a screened shot.

That's all it took to get the two points although Rask had to make a couple top-notch saves to end it.

The Bruins come home to face the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at the TD Garden.