The Bruins came prepared to play after losing in Montreal on Friday night. The Leafs, on the other hand, flew all the way to Boston to go public skating.
Bruins 7, Maple Leafs 2
TD Garden, Boston, Mass.
Dec. 5, 2009
Headliner: Marc Savard inked a new seven-year deal on Tuesday and since then he has four goals in three games. Savard forced a lot of Canadians to change the channel on Saturday with a hat trick that for one night made Bruins fans forget about the team's scoring woes. He now has eight goals and six assists in 14 games for the Bruins this season.
Grinder: Tuukka Rask was just 4:14 from another shutout, but the Leafs finally broke through for two goals at the end of third period. But after playing just 24 hours earlier in Montreal, the Bruins needed a solid performance in goal against a team that could explode for offense at any point. Rask gave the B's the type of game they needed, allowing just two goals, and taking the pressure off the offense for nearly the entire game as they went to work against the sloppy Toronto defense. Rask stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced to improve 8-2-2 on the season.
Key Moment: The Bruins took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after the first period after scoring two early goals. One would think that the Leafs went into the dressing room with a comeback on their minds with the B's holding the dreaded two-goal lead, but before the Leafs could stage any sort of comeback, Zdeno Chara found the back of the net just 2:09 into the second period to extend the Bruins lead to 3-0. After that, the Leafs were too busy head hunting to put together some sort of offense, and the Bruins just kept pouring it on as the Leafs stood still at the bottom of the division for another night.
Weak Link: The Maple Leafs can blame the blowout loss on their offense, defense or goaltending. We'll blame it on all three. The Maple Leafs allowed seven goals on 26 shots, and they came in a variety of ways, but just two came on the power play. Five even-strength goals allowed probably wasn't what Ron Wilson was expecting from a Bruins team that can go days without finding the back of the net, and to lay an egg at the Garden probably wasn't on Wilson's agenda either. But the Leafs failed to put together any string of serious scoring threats and their undisciplined play found them in the box for a large portion of the night. There's a reason why only one team (Carolina) has a worse record than the Leafs in the entire league, and you saw it on Saturday.
What's Next: The Bruins have four days off before they host the Maple Leafs again. After getting trounced in Montreal on Friday, the B's were able to split the weekend series against the Canadian teams. Next week the Bruins will face a pair of rebuilding clubs in the Leafs on Thursday and the Islanders on Saturday, but the Black and Gold can't look past their two upcoming opponents. With just four games at home in the next 26 days, the Bruins will need to take advantage of their matchup at home against the Maple Leafs before heading to the Island.
