Will the Leafs do the thing? Let's find out. Spoiler: they do a lot of things, not the thing, though.

First Period

Max Domi vs Brad Marchand begins before puck drop.

Matt Knies with the first shot of the game on Jeremy Swayman.

Nick Robertson with a great chance.

Leafs have started hard, fast and effective. Well, until the fourth line forget the point of the game.

Two on one hitting leads to two on one scoring:

1-0 Bruins

You can forgive a mistake make while trying to score, but if that's how Ryan Reaves is going to play, then he needs to not be in the game.

Simon Benoit takes a penalty trying to defend behind the aforementioned fourth line who couldn't gain control of the puck and get a change.

Boston with a great chance that hits the post, and that's the power play over.

Now that all that sucked the life out of the Leafs, we'll see if they can get back to how they started.

The answer is no, the third line gets hemmed in for an hour. But the top six are actually getting good zone time.

Pat Maroon dumps Timothy Liljegren into the Boston bench, and Matthews answers back with a wraparound attempt.

Connor Dewar gives Swayman the snow treatment, and a fight breaks out inside the Boston net. Sorry, it's technically a scrum since it's mostly hugging. No call to either player.

Tyler Bertuzzi can't control his stick, but tries to take someone with him. It's a Boston power play.

Another shot off a post during this power play is all they get. Ilya Samsonov has been fine so far.

A huge scrum keeps the puck out somehow.

The period winds down with some Matthews line offence. And then to suck the momentum out of all that Domi crosschecks a guy in the back of the head. The ref makes this four-on-four, but that won't last if this kind of stuff keeps going on.

Thoughts

If you play with emotions as extreme as our GDT, you will end up in the box, and the other team will win. You have to be intense and physical, but smart about it. The Leafs failed at the smart part.

The opening festival of hard hits and fast play was great. Even with the mess in the middle, the Leafs finished with a slight edge in shots, and a big edge in shot quality.

Chill, you idiots, and you'll win this game with that kind of quality offence.

Second Period

Power plays to start the period are often pretty bad, but the Leafs are on the ball on this one with a host of chances.

Calle Järnkrok comes up with a good shot, Robertson on the rebound. They're good together.

The broadcast says Samsonov is swimming, but I can't bring myself to look.

Matthews has the wide open net with Swayman out trying to play the puck, and he hits the post.

Bruins score on the third line when they can't get control of the puck.

2-0 Bruins

Carlo just hung out there in the weeds unnoticed while all five Leafs collapsed down to the net. The other defender was equally open. Samsonov didn't seem to have anything to offer there.

Leafs get confused and think the neutral zone is the defensive zone, and they can't get out of it. So many bad passes, ill-advised lob attempts and general chaos.

The Bruins are not, on average, all that great at defending. But what they don't do is the collapse to the net, and what they absolutely don't do is turn their backs on the open men on the points. They pick up some rush chances against by keeping some forwards to the mid-ice.

I'm saying that the Leafs forwards could stand to cheat defensively a little. At least be available to take a pass when someone wins the board battle, which they are actually good at doing.

Matthews takes a high-sticking penalty, and the Bruins score.

3-0 Bruins

Morgan Geekie the perfect screen there. Samsonov never sees it.

Max Domi to the box for a stupid faceoff slash on Marchand because he is just that sort of player to take a sad song and make it bitter.

Any time you feel the pain, you know where to look for the source.

4-0 Bruins

Good lord, what is that PK?

Domi yapping with Marchand. Do it! Have an idiotic fight and get the gate. Both of you. I came to watch a damn hockey game.

Thoughts

That's the game. Well, it was at 3-0. The Leafs have a lot of good things going on to be sure. That's not a false narrative, but they lost their quality edge in that period. The score is not Samsonov's fault, but he is no real help. Yes, yes, I know Save % is the gospel.

The main issue that was apparent all season – the Leafs can't exit the zone – is the main issue here tonight.

Add in the Bruins ability to exploit the Leafs with rush chances against and you have this mess.

Max Domi can just go sit and think about what he's done, however.

Third Period

Now that is so Leafy. Reaves to David Kämpf with some work done by Benoit, and it's 4-1 Boston.

McCabe takes a penalty but the Bruins power play doesn't need to be good now.

Leafs outshooting (Corsi) the Bruins 15-2 so far, which is fine for Boston when they have the goalie to rely on and a very nice cushion. But it's important for the Leafs. This isn't single-game elimination, and they need to remember they've got more games to play.

Leafs get a "puck over glass" power play. They get no joy from that, so they pull the goalie.

You'll never guess what happens.

5-1 Bruins

I almost missed that, I was looking up ice time to see if someone played a few seconds less than someone else so I could get mad even without social media.

Thoughts

Next game is Monday at a sensible start time.

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