The Toronto Maple Leafs put forth their most complete effort of the season in a 6-1 thrashing of the Boston Bruins at Air Canada Center on Wednesday. The Leafs avoided the pitfalls of yielding the opening goal and losing the puck possession battles that have plagued them throughout the season, but head coach Randy Carlyle is not ready to break out the celebratory bubbly just yet.
“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. “ Carlyle said of the club that has won six of their last eight games. “We are a group that needs to continue to focus on some of the smaller things and details of the game and build off of it. Sure we feel good about ourselves right now, but who’s coming on Friday?…
Spurred on by the embarrassment of their performance in a 4-1 loss on October 25, Toronto appeared the more determined club from the drop of the puck and registered six of the first seven shots on Boston nemesis Tuukka Rask before Phil Kessel opening the scoring at 6:46 of the first period.
The Bruins were as listless an uninterested on Wednesday as Toronto was in their previous meeting and had no answer for the Leafs top line of Kessel, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk, who combined for eight points. Kessel’s second of the game and club-leading 10th goal of the season 18 seconds into the middle frame put Boston back on their heels and Morgan Rielly’s conversion of a Rask rebound 76 seconds later broke their back.
Bozak’s redirection of a van Riemsdyk pass on the power play two minutes later chased Rask from the goal in favor of backup Niklas Svedberg, but there was no accompanying change in momentum, as van Riemsdyk scored his seventh of the year with the man advantage at 9:51 to give Toronto a five goal lead, before Dennis Seidenberg got Boston on the scoreboard late in the period.
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The Bruins have relied on superior defensive play and a tireless work ethic to get the best of Toronto in the past(prior to Wednesday the Leafs were 2-12-2 in the last 16 games against the perennial Eastern Conference power), but on this night the Leafs brought their “A… game. Playing without team captain Zdeno Chara and center David Krejci undoubtedly contributed to Boston’s struggles, but the Leafs did not turn over the puck irresponsibly and got solid effort from all four forwards lines.
The win is the fourth straight at Air Canada Center and moves Toronto over .500(5-4-0) at home for the first time this season.
The line of Peter Holland, Leo Komarov and Mike Santorelli continued their hot streak, assisting on Rielly’s crucial goal and adding a power play tally in the third. Holland has been particularly effective since being moved up in the lineup following Joffrey Lupul’s hand injury and has scored goals in three straight games.
“Playing with these guys(Komarov and Santorelli) makes the game easy.… Holland said. “We just seem to read really well off each other and it’s going well right now.…
Toronto cannot rest on their laurels for long, as Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins visit the ACC for the final time on Friday. The Pens lead the Metropolitan Division with a 10-3-1 record and are coming off a 5-0 pasting by the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
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