Bruins lose to Toronto 3-2, dropping 8 game win streak
If you did not get to watch this game, don't feel bad, you really only missed about 10 minutes of good hockey. The Bruins beat themselves tonight, plain and simple. Each period started with the Bruins seemingly skating through cement while Toronto noticeably playing for a playoff spot.
In the first period, while Boston was just aimlessly gliding around gave Nazem Kadri, who is red hot right now, the opportunity to score. And that he did. This lead to Shawn Thornton and Colton Orr throwing down right off the face off for a pretty good bout, Thorton really catching the worst of it. The goal and fight seemingly stirred Boston 4th line (they played with a lot of energy and grit all night) but despite the shots at the end of period won by Boston 10 to 4, the score remained 1-0.
The Boston Bruins came out dragging their feet once again in the 2nd and paid the price. Mikhail Grabovski took advantage of Boston's lackadaisical defense and scored bringing the score to 2 - 0. Once again the Bruins decide to wake up and drive Toronto into their own end. Boston just could not capitalize on any of their chances.
And it was the same story in the 3rd period. Piss poor defensive play leads to a dirty goal in the slot from Frazer Mclaren. 3-0, Toronto. This drew the ire of Claude Julien pushing him to pull Anton Khudobin and bring in Tuukka Rask. Once again, juiced by the Mclaren goal, the Bruins made their push, successfully this time as Dennis Seidenberg put one to the back of the net for his second of the season. Boston then got a golden opportunity on a power play on a tripping call. ZERO shots recorded on said power play. ZERO. With 1:32 left in the third period and Rask pulled, Andrew Ference let one rip and brought the score to 3-2. Despite a strong push in the last few moments it was too little, too late, and Boston fell to Toronto for the first time in 9 games.
Tonight, the Boston Bruins looked like the team they have looked like this entire road trip: tired. They were without fight and without passion the entire game. No skating game. No hitting game. Zero to be proud about in this one. Boston has to battle through this scoring slump. With Toronto coming to the Garden on Monday, they have a chance to redeem themselves. We can only hope that the hometown crowd will give them some life.
