Leafs Postgame: These Leafs Aren’t Those Leafs

Just in case you needed any proof that this isn’t the same team from 2013, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave the world an encore tonight. For the fourth time this year, they faced the Boston Bruins. For the fourth time this year, they took a 4-1 lead over the Boston Bruins. For the fourth time this year, they beat the Boston Bruins.

If we’re being honest about the whole thing, this game was actually pretty close, and at times, even looked gloomy. David Backes opened up the scoring for the Bruins by burying a shot made possible by Brad Marchand making Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev look silly in different ways, dangling one and baiting the other to create an open chance.

The Leafs were quick to respond, though, as seven minutes later, Morgan Rielly answered with his sixth of the season, made possible by a good shift and a better pass from Mitch Marner. They were timely goals for both teams, not that the fans would know, as the two sides played two full periods without the scoreboard shot or time clocks working properly.

This made it awkward to time shifts, or track penalties, and there were a fair share of those. The two teams played tough, and sometimes dirty, trying to find a way to get an edge in this one.

Eventually, it came in Toronto’s, when with two minutes to go in the third, with Dominic Moore in the box, Tyler Bozak came to the rescue with his 17th of the year:

William Nylander and Nazem Kadri added empty netters shortly afterwards, and while Moore got a vengeance goal with ten seconds to go, the Leafs held on for the massive, massive win.

It’s cheesy to say something like “relentlessness”, but at no point did the team try to play anything safe, or back down when the Bruins tried to flex toughness on them. Frederik Andersen didn’t let himself lose composure when commotion came to the front of the net. It was just a solid front to back effort, even when they didn’t have control. Zero complacency, and that’s what you want to see.

At the front of that was Leo Komarov, who didn’t particularly light up the scoresheet, but man, did he spend a lot of time pissing off Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand and anyone he could, really. This was some vintage, 2013 Uncle Leo and you had to love it.

With the win, the Leafs move to 33-23-15 on the season and hit the 80 point mark for the first time since 2014. Toronto remains in the second wild card position but jumps three points ahead of the New York Islanders, four ahead of Tampa Bay, and seven ahead of Philadelphia. They’re also now just two removed from Boston for the third seed in the division, so if all goes right, they might still have some room to climb. Their next game comes on Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.