Another game against the Boston Bruins, another loss for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Make that five straight defeats this season against their Atlantic Division rivals after a 5-1 shellacking at TD Garden on Saturday night. The B’s were the better team for most of the contest, easily handling the Leafs’ stars and potting two goals on the powerplay in the commanding victory.
Toronto’s head coach Sheldon Keefe was not at all happy with a few of the penalties his team took — including a Tyler Bertuzzi high stick on Hampus Lindholm in the opening frame, and a similar infraction against Auston Matthews in the second.
“Two high sticks, that’s just carelessness,” the bench boss said afterwards, according to 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson. “This time of year, you can’t allow your stick to get up like that.”
Keefe was also miffed about a Max Domi slash on Brad Marchand which gifted Boston one of its five man advantages in the contest.
“Can’t do that,” he told The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa.
Both of the Bruins’ PP goals came in the second period, both off the stick of Jake DeBrusk, who leads the playoffs after the opening day with three points.
On the other hand, the Leafs were unable to score on their three powerplay opportunities, one of the key differences between the two clubs in Massachusetts on Saturday. The team’s PP units were “not good,” Keefe said postgame, and he isn’t wrong.
“The Bruins ranked 14th with the man advantage in the regular season, while the Leafs slotted in seventh,” wrote The Score’s Josh Gold-Smith. “Boston had the seventh-best penalty kill over the 82-game schedule, and Toronto ranked 23rd.”
It was another night of futility for the Leafs against the Bruins, and the Canadian club just cannot find a way to best the Americans in 2023-24.
The Leafs just cannot solve the Bruins
After four regular-season losses against the Bruins, it was much of the same in Game 1. Add that to the lopsided history between these two franchises, with the Leafs unable to beat Boston in a series since 1959.
The only bright spot in a brutal start to the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs were a few moments in the second period, when the Leafs looked like they could hang around.
“In the second period, we had a couple of chances, really good chances, some of our best chances in the game,” Keefe explained, per the Associated Press.
“Matthews [had] a chance to even the score. We don’t do that, and … it ends up in our net. Then the penalties pop up, which allowed them to pull away in the game. This time of year, you can’t make those mistakes. The team that does ends up on the wrong side of the game.”
The Leafs will need to limit the mistakes when the two square off again for Game 2 if they hope to final chalk up a W against Boston this year. And that will be a lot easier if No. 2 scorer William Nylander — who missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury — is able to return to the lineup.
More must-reads: