Toronto Maple Leafs Post-Game: The Rise and Fall of Optimus Reim

PI-TY POINT!

PI-TY POINT!

PI-TY POINT!

With a 4-3 shootout victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins picked up two points – but more importantly, the Leafs picked up one. They may have lost in the shootout, but hey… Reimer doesn’t win against Boston in extra time. 

The bottom line is that this time around, the Bruins were the team that started to slip once they’d pulled ahead in scoring… and while a loss is still a loss, this isn’t one the Leafs should be all that ashamed of.

I won’t lie to you; I made myself a pretty bomb homemade pizza tonight, so I’m a little sluggish. Forgive me; I’m still in a glass case of emotions from the first two periods of this game. 

Scoring opened with the most Boston Bruins thing ever – a short-handed goal, scored by Brad Marchand and assisted by Patrice Bergeron. The duo have become one of the most lethal two way pairs in the NHL over the last few years, and Toronto was reminded of that the hard way. 

Salt was just rubbed into the wound when none other than prime shitheel and perenially suspended goon Zac Rinaldo scored his first goal in a Boston Bruins uniform (bringing his career goal total up to 9); that was when the game could have very easily been Boston’s to run away with, a la last year’s Nashville massacre. 

Instead, though, the Leafs stormed back – first getting on the board with Joffrey Lupul’s eighth goal of the season, then with two more come-from-behind goals following Boston’s third and final tally in the second period. 

The third period was pretty exciting, but only because Tuukka Rask did his best Mike Smith impression and James Reimer decided he’d rather be Carey Price.

Did Brad Marchand score two goals, making every Toronto fan grit their teeth? Yeah. Did Zac Rinaldo score Boston’s third goal, creating the most aggravating and highly-hated trifecta of tallies in the history of Boston games? Yeah. 

Did Toronto still come back to tie it up and take it to a shootout? 

You betcha. 

Boston got pretty disgustingly outshot in this game, especially once they’d scored their three goals. It wasn’t exactly pretty hockey on either side, but Toronto certainly didn’t look like they were playing a team that was supposed to outclass them; that’s another of Toronto’s baby steps in the right direction. 

Tyler Bozak’s tying goal was his second point of the night, and it arguably shifted the momentum just enough to see the game head into extra time (and ultimately a shootout) – but this game was so much more than that for young Tyler Bozak. 

That’s right – with a two point night on Monday, Bozak pulled exactly even with former linemate Phil Kessel in the 2015-2016 scoring race that no one’s keeping track of outside of myself and Steve Simmons. The centre still doesn’t look like a top line guy, but his niche on the Leafs seems to finally be found; the energy guy who know how to score just enough that he’s able to tear it up as a middle six forward. 

I mean, we’ve been saying that should have been his role all along… but for now, let’s just revel in him having 14 points without Kessel, in just 19 games to boot. 

The Leafs pick up a point (further pulling ahead of the hapless Edmonton Oilers and the forgettable Columbus Blue Jackets) before going on a nice, five day vacation. They’ll next play against the Washington Capitals on Saturday, hosting the Metropolitan Division club at the ACC before hosting the Edmonton Oilers Monday; after that, they’ll take off for a Central Division road trip that can’t end well.