First Period

To make you sad before we start:

Matt Knies gets only the second shot on goal after 4 minutes of game time. The most notable action from the Leafs is a sort of "Oooooh Shit" style of defending where the puck is a grenade and they skipped bomb disposal class.

Despite that, the Bruins need a lot more minutes to force Woll to make a save.

He's been good in a role where there aren't enough bodies to give him easy minutes.

Knies draws a penalty with his puck control, and the Leafs get the power play.

The Leafs second unit spends their entire time trying to gain the zone and generate some boos from the crowd after the first unit can't convert on actual chances.

Also a pleasant aspect of recent games, Robertson is generally really engaged defensively.

Suddenly these teams are trading chances and skating fast, and well, here's how it ends:

1-0 Bruins

The Moneypuck xG model gives that shot 2.8% chance of scoring. Obviously Pastrnak saw a clean lane to an open area of the net and went for it, but that is an unusual place to score from.

Oh great. Just lovely. Ryan Reaves goes for the kid by smushing Matthew Poitras late and hard into the boards. It was bad enough when he was following "the code", but this hit, even if clean, serves no function but to intimidate. Which isn't going to work because if Poitras could be chased away from playing hockey, he'd be back in junior.

If he wasn't such a slow skater he could have got done for charging too.

Bruins to the power play which the Leafs kill fairly easily. The weird side effect of the defence callups is that AHL guys actually have to PK.

Thoughts

The Bruins have tepid offence, I read that somewhere. The Leafs dominated in shot quality and are losing because Pastrnak made a bad shot look good while the Bruins are very hard to score against.

Second Period

Leafs open with a good offensive push.

The game has opened up so much, it's taking Chris Cuthbert five minutes of game play to get through his talking point about how many goals the Boston defence has scored.

Knies fails on a great pass from Nylander, the play moves the other way and Pastrnak does an equally good job of setting up Kevin Shattenkirk.

2-0 Bruins

A two-goal lead has allowed the Bruins to do nothing but defend in the offensive zone – they just won't let the Leafs out, and they aren't trying to score.

But once the Leafs do get loose...

2-1 Bruins

Matthews with the classic fade into view from behind the play and boom.

Leafs getting some zone time post-goal, but not much in the way of shots.

Thoughts

The Max Domi line is a null factor offensively and they're getting massively outmatched by the Poitras line.

Third Period

Heh. I think I'll just take the blame for this. With no passing options, it just has to be a shot, and Domi makes it count (it counts as his first too):

Tie Game

JvR almost gets the traditional ex-Leafs goal.

Mo dumps Marchand in the corner, and that's almost as popular as a goal with the crowd.

Reaves got stuck out on a very long shift in the second period, and hasn't played since.

Well, I was worried about another shootout. Leafs let the Bruins come on in, and Joe Woll thinks he's got it.

3-2 Bruins

Sometimes it feels like you can gain the zone against the Leafs as easily as you gain weight at Christmas.

That's not a "shit happens" goal, really, the Bruins have come on strong in this half of the third. The Leafs have let them.

Leafs pull the goalie fairly late, with only a minute and a half left.

Thirty-four seconds left, and...

You know who.

Tie Game

Okay this is a legit fun path to overtime.

Overtime

Oh cool, we're doing the Kämpf starts OT thing.

The Bruins win the faceoff, so it becomes Pastrnak vs Kämpf. Luckily Woll has the save.

Suddenly this OT is a lot less dull as it's up and down breakaways. Zacha can't end it. Nylander can't end it.

The crowd has remembered the words to Go Leafs Go, which is always a special moment.

Marner with a great play and he can't end it.

Now that's just the most unlikely set of circumstances.

Nylander falls, the Bruins don't score, and then they do.

Bruins win 4-3

See you Thursday for the next game.

Game Coverage