Snippets of this column originally appeared on 985TheSportsHub.com. Read the whole thing here...
This Bruins-Maple Leafs series has become nothing short of infuriating.
I mean, just look at the last two games: The Bruins have out-attempted the Maple Leafs by a 162-82 mark in, but have been outscored 7-4, and have held a lead of any sort for 35 seconds.
After a Game 5 loss saw the Bruins do everything but score the game-tying goal and let Toronto melt into a puddle, Game 6 felt like it’d be simple and sweet redemption for a B's squad that's routinely left Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen looking behind him.
There was just no possible way to look at the way the Leafs finished (survived is a more appropriate word) Game 5 and feel as if momentum wasn’t on Boston's side heading back to Toronto; Bruce Cassidy’s group was going back to the ACC on the heels of setting season-highs in shot attempts (90), possession (they controlled possession with 70 percent of the game’s offense), scoring chances (52!), and after surrendering a season-low 19 scoring chances against.
With the Bruins (finally) realizing the moment upon them, the Maple Leafs were going to get run out of their own building, and it was off to Tampa Bay the Bruins would go.
And to their credit, the Bruins carried some of that swagger into Monday’s Game 6.
But it came at the wrong times (read as: without results needed at the other end to make it all worth it), and in between completely self-inflicted wounds that were just downright uncharacteristic of this team.
Everything this team has done wrong, again, completely avoidable.
And Game 6 was no exception.
The Bruins peppered Andersen for 17 shots in the opening 20 minutes of an elimination Game 6 played on the road, and with the Patrice Bergeron line skating like they had returned to their dominant form. The Bruins were rewarded for this persistence by way of a Jake DeBrusk goal off a set faceoff play just 1:05 into the middle frame.
It should have been a tone-setting goal that got the Bruins going and put the pressure on the Leafs.
But miscommunication between Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask on the simplest of chips into the d-zone -- a scenario that Chara and Rask have easily and successfully communicated on maybe about 100 times this season -- turned a nothing play into a Maple Leaf goal 35 seconds after the DeBrusk tally. It also marked the fifth time that the Leafs had scored a goal within two and a half minutes of a Boston goal in this series. Toronto’s only scored 16 goals in this series, by the way, so the math’s not exactly promising if you're trying to downplay this alarming trend.
Then a defensive-zone whiff from Brad Marchand allowed Mitch Marner to jump on a loose puck and beat Tuukka Rask on an angle that Rask could have probably played a little bit better. It was a skilled play from a skilled player, we’d all agree. But it’s a goal that simply can’t happen given the way the Bruins were (yet again) surging against Andersen at the other end, with utterly ridiculous looks on goal and Toronto looking gassed shift after shift. (It also shouldn't happen when you're out here making guarantees, but that's neither here nor there, I suppose.)
Both miscues are beyond correctable, sure, but mainly things that no team can afford this team of year.
Especially one fighting -- be it the puck, themselves, or the opposition (oddly enough, it's the Leaf defense corps providing the least resistance among the three) -- as hard as the Bruins are in Toronto's end.
This and that
- Ryan Donato should be in your Game 7 lineup. You need the finishing touch around the net and/or the shot that can leave Andersen guessing. I get it, you have reservations, yada yada. He's good enough, and what you're doing right now ain't working, so mix it up.
- Tell anybody that comes to you looking for a Game 7 prediction to go screw. It's a Game 7 at the TD Garden. Expect the most ridiculous thing imaginable. My prediction: Tuukka Rask scores a goal and people are still bitching about him being soft. Maybe it's just wishful thinking.
- Oh, and I've moved locations. After almost two years as the B's beat writer for WEEI.com, I've left to join 98.5 The Sports Hub as a digital content producer (a fancy word they use for sportswriter these days), and with an on-air presence as well. I'm still trying to figure out what that means for HockeyBuzz. It likely means moving out of a beat writing role, but I would still enjoy writing columns and what have you, so long as time permits. We'll figure it all out.
Ty Anderson is a digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»