Bruins Notes: Boston Had ‘Very Winnable’ Opportunity To Seize

The Boston Bruins were haunted (again) by a recurring theme that’s anchored the team throughout the season: penalty discipline.

Boston’s scoreless first period was followed by a nightmarish second period as penalties, again, anchored the Bruins. The Toronto Maple Leafs, on the other hand, who hadn’t defeated Boston in regular-season play in two years, were prepared. Toronto scored twice in the second period, both times on power play opportunities, which alone proved to be more than enough to put away the Bruins in Tuesday night’s 4-0 Maple Leafs victory at Scotiabank Arena.

Without context, a 4-0 defeat seems like a hopeless blowout contest, but that’s not how Boston interpreted its fourth road defeat of the year which dropped the Bruins to 6-7-1 overall this season.

“(It was) very winnable,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “There’s a lot of things that we’re seeing that the team is going in the right direction. We don’t like the score and obviously, we need to continue to improve, but we do see elements of our game coming. Our defensive structure is getting better. We gotta continue to just develop our offense.”

Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman allowed just two (power play) goals through the first two periods, leaving a final period of play for the offense to muster up a comeback bid. That never came. In fact, even with six power play opportunities to utilize, Boston’s offense made as much noise as a cricket, making Toronto’s job at protecting a feasible 2-0 lead immensely easier en route to the finish line.

That became problematic.

Boston’s offensive slump, too, haunted the Black and Gold and swung every and all momentum Toronto’s way.

The Maple Leafs scored twice more in the third period, including a third time on the power play, allowing Toronto to finish off the Bruins with a 42.9 success percentage spawned by Boston’s miscues. It’s not a fresh issue, but the Bruins still need to make the necessary adjustments to prevent self-inflicted slip-ups from determining whether or not they’re sent to the loss column.

“We had a good weekend moving forward over to Toronto — that’s always good games,” David Pastrnak told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Like I said, the 5-on-5 was there today. You can definitely see the bright side and obviously, we have a lot to learn. We are a younger group, and the mistakes are there, so obviously, we’re gonna have to go back to Boston and watch what we’re doing and get better.”

Here are more notes from Tuesday night’s Bruins-Maple Leafs matchup:

— Boston was penalized eight times, opening the door for a total of seven power play opportunities given to Toronto on a silver platter. That was the overpowering margin that determined the ultimate result.

“You can’t take that many penalties,” Montgomery explained, per NESN. “But we had just as many power plays. So it was just one of those games where we just weren’t as effective as them in the special teams.”

— Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz was dynamite and completely stumped Boston’s offense. Stolarz was spotless, saving 29 Bruins shots on goal, adding to the frustrations coming from Boston’s side.

“He seemed to see the puck really well tonight,” Montgomery said, per NESN. “There was a lot of pucks that were going through traffic. From the bench, we didn’t think he saw it and the last thing you know a leg or an arm or a blocker would come around and knock it away.”

— The Bruins have been shut out three times this season.

— Boston endured its first regular season loss to Toronto since Nov. 5, 2022.

— The Bruins will return to action and home on Thursday night to host the Calgary Flames at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.