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The Boston Bruins threw everything they had at Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer. But Reimer, on a hot streak unlike any other one in his NHL career, made stop after stop for the visiting Maple Leafs. That was until Boston captain Zdeno Chara was able to get entirely too close to the Toronto crease before unleashing his patented slap shot through Reimer.
The goal, which came 16:17 into the third, was a deserved tally for a Black and Gold offense that controlled play and nearly doubled the Leafs in shots (the B’s put 37 on net compared to the Leafs’ 22).
“I think we had to work really hard to get this one. They did a good job around their net. Obviously [James] Reimer was extremely good. I can see why he [Mike Babcock]’s been riding him, really solid in net for them tonight,… Boston coach Claude Julien said after the win, the club’s second in a row. “Lots of shots, but for the most part, they were doing a good job by either blocking them, or at least taking away their rebound if there was one, by being down low. So we had to work hard to get those goals tonight, or that goal, and obviously the empty netter, but I thought our team did a good job of staying focused with what we were supposed to do, and not get frustrated.…
In their own end, though, the Bruins had their moments where Tuukka Rask needed to stand on his head. Most notably, on two breakaways from Toronto forward Shawn Matthias.
“Tuukka was our best player tonight,… B’s winger Brett Connolly said. “It looks like he has kind of turned a corner here. He was great again tonight. That game is a completely different game if he doesn’t stop that breakaway. Again, he played really well tonight. I thought as a team we played pretty well too, obviously we gave up a little bit, again but you’re going to give up chances in games.…
Peppered with 22 Leafs shots, the 28-year-old Rask once again stonewalled the team that drafted him.
“That’s all about everybody doing their jobs and believing in the system. Then at least you can say that you played a good game and today if we lose one nothing obviously it’s going to hurt but you knew that you played a great game,… Rask said following his first shutout against Toronto since Feb. 2013. “And those are the losses that won’t hurt as much as the ones that you kind of blew the game away. It was a good thing to see that we stuck with it we got rewarded and maybe when we take things from here and learn as a team that we can win even the low scoring games when we stuck with the game plan.…
One of the big switches for the Bruins in this one came with a third line unit that featured Connolly with Joonas Kemppainen at center and Ryan Spooner on the wing. For Spooner, a player that admits he’s never played more than 20 games on the wing in his entire career, the shift to the wing came with some mistakes, but an overall speedy game that benefitted the line’s overall game.
“I think it’s a great option to have,… Julien said of moving Spooner to the wing. “It doesn’t mean he’s not going to play center again, but I like the fact that I can, instead of maybe moving [Joonas] Kemppainen up against certain teams because they’re a heavy game, and we need maybe a little bit more late in the game, then I know I can move him to the wing and he’s still going to be a helpful player, instead of just necessarily leaving him on the bench and waiting for the next power play. So, no doubt, there’s some things you can do with Ryan, and it’s nice to see that he’s embraced that challenge on the wing at times, so we can utilize him. It’s his advantage.
“He’s not just a centerman, now he’s a centerman and a winger.…
The Bruins solidified the win by way of Brad Marchand's empty-net tally at 19:53.
Boston’s victory moved the club above the true meaning of .500 -- with the Bruins boasting a 10-8-1 record through 19 games played -- an obvious goal for the club following their 0-3-0 start to the year.
“It’s what we want to do, we want to get on a roll, get above .500, close in on Thanksgiving,… Bruins winger Matt Beleskey said. “We want to get ourselves close or in a playoff spot.…
The Bruins are back at it for another head-to-head with the Leafs on Monday night in Toronto.
NOTES: Rask’s 22-save shutout was his second of the season and 28th of his career, moving him past Ed Johnston for fourth on the club’s all-time shutouts list… This was Boston’s first home shutout of the Maple Leafs since Tim Thomas accomplished the feat in an 8-0 win on Mar. 19, 2012… Boston winger Frank Vatrano missed this game with an upper-body injury… Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri was held without a shot on goal for the first time since Feb. 28… Toronto goaltender James Reimer has not allowed more than one goal in a period for 24 consecutive periods.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.