Leafs Postgame: It was 3-1

Photo Credit: Winslow Townson/USA TODAY SPORTS

Lost in all of the re-branding hullabaloo was the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs played a hockey game less than an hour before. To be fair, there was a large stretch of this game where one shouldn’t have cared in the slightest. Heck, if you’re all-in on The Tank Nation, the end result was probably not one that made you stats-happy.

But there’s something about beating the Bruins that makes you happy. Tonight, the Leafs did so in dramatic fashion, coming back to win 4-3 in overtime.

The Bruins struck first in this game, after super-duper pest Brad Marchand took advantage of some traffic around James Reimer to pot his 21st goal of the season. The Leafs were unamused with Matt Beleskey’s push to the net and challenged the goal, but the league found no issue and took away Toronto’s timeout.

The Leafs didn’t back down, though and kept pressing until Daniel Winnik tied the game with this deflection:

The Bruins, who are no stranger to making the Leafs suffer, scored two quick goals in the first minute and a half of the third period. Brad Marchand took advantage of an awful piece of defensive coverage by the typically solid Morgan Rielly, and David Krejci was able to stuff in a scramble tally that was initiated by a gigantic rebound off of James Reimer’s armour. At that point the game seemed out of reach, at least until..

Rielly made up for his Gaffe with his shot, and Komarov’s deflection was one of the prettiest that I’ve seen from any Leafs player this year, and it wasn’t even the last of its type in this game. Nazem Kadri followed him up with a redirection of his own a few minutes later, which eventually sent the game to overtime.

With a little under two minutes to go in OT, the Leafs capped off the comeback thanks to a rebound from PA Parentau, who chased Jake Gardiner’s point shot and won his team the game.

Nobody expected the Leafs to lose every single game down the stretch, so if you’re going to grab a victory once in a while, it may as well be a well-deserved one against the Bruins. They held the possession edge from beginning to end and didn’t curl into a ball their catastrophic opening in the third period. Besides, it’s the Bruins. Enjoy it.

Brad Marchand is one of the league’s great heels. Nazem Kadri is to an extent too, but he’s Toronto’s great heel. Here, he threw a great check on a player that the world loves to hate. Not just that, but as Ray Ferraro pointed out, there was lots of room for Kadri to throw a dirtier hit while playing the “I was just finishing my check” card. Instead, he made sure it was as clean as could be, leaving absolutely no room for anybody to complain.

Kadri was by far the best player on the ice tonight for either team. His 72.2% Corsi-For Percentage was the best on both teams, despite starting only 36% of his shifts in the offensive zone. He picked a goal and two assists, and he had two hits on top of the above bone crusher.

With Boston behind them, the Leafs head back home to Toronto to prepare for their next game on Thursday. They’ll be taking on the New Jersey Devils, who are clinging on for dear life in the Metropolitan Division playoff race. Puck drop is at 7:30 PM.