Here's what we learned from the Bruins' 3-2 victory over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night in Toronto at the building formerly known as the Air Canada Centre.
1) Perhaps it’s time to start calling the fourth line something different, like “the third line” maybe.
Certainly, Sean Kuraly, Noel Acciari and Chris Wagner play with the kind of energy and physicality one expects out of a good fourth line and it they seemed to have jelled into that kind of trio the past few weeks. Acciari and Wagner combined for 10 hits and brought the lumber physically. Acciari and Nazem Kadri had an ongoing battle that was pretty entertaining to watch. Still, it was Kuraly that brought the explosiveness with a career-high three points, including scoring the tying goal in the second period and setting up the game-winner with a nice play where he protected the puck against the side boards before feeding David Pastrnak right in front of the net. All three topped 13 minutes of ice time and had more than “third-line center” Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, so perhaps now it’s time to give them more props than your average, ordinary fourth line.
2) David Pastrnak scores again and his 26th goal is the game-winner.
It continues his domination of the Toronto Maple Leafs and it also keeps him close to a 50-goal pace for the season. He’s slacked off ever so slightly and is now on pace for “just” 47 goals and 97 points in what would be his best NHL season by leaps and bounds. He’s still got a really good chance to do something that hasn’t been done in a Black and Gold uniform since the heyday of Hall of Famer Cam Neely. The goal kept him within striking distance of that pace with an entire second half skating with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in front of him. That means his chances for 50 are still pretty darn good.
3) As disappointing as losing to the Capitals might have been Thursday night, the Bruins won the truly important game Saturday.
The victory puts them two points behind the Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division and a very important chance at home ice in the first round of the playoffs should Boston and Toronto meet each other again. The Leafs have a game in hand and both teams are done playing each other for the regular season, so the B’s needed to make certain they get the better half of the “four-point game” against the Maple Leafs. They did just that with a couple of clutch goals at the end of both the first and second periods, and with a very strong game between the pipes from Tuukka Rask. Saturday night in Toronto sure felt like a playoff game with no whistles in the final six minutes of frenetic action. The Bruins showed they were again up to the challenge. Maybe they can’t beat Washington and potentially advance all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, but the B’s showed on Saturday that they are plenty talented enough to be a playoff team and perhaps even win a round or two in their own divisional bracket. That’s a decent place to start.
PLUS
*Kuraly finished with a career-high three points, scored the tying goal in the second period on a beautiful sniper shot to the top corner and was a plus-3 in 16 minutes of ice time.
- MORE BRUINS - Pastrnak makes history with his 120th goal
*Rask stopped 30 shots, including a few big saves at the start of the second period when Mitch Marner had a shorthanded breakaway. His 15 saves in the first period came when the B’s were getting their bearings. Rask was at his best when the Bruins were not. That’s what a true No. 1 goalie is supposed to do.
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*Pastrnak wasn’t at his best on Saturday, given some of the games he’s enjoyed against the Leafs over the years, but he scored the game-winner in the second period and still got plenty of chances with five shots on net.
MINUS
*Brad Marchand finished with six shots on net and 10 total shot attempts, but he also missed a wide open net in the first period and had as many giveaways (three) as shots on net (three) through the first two periods. It certainly wasn’t his best.
*The Leafs' Nikita Zaitsev was on the ice for all three Bruins goals and had just a single shot on net in his 20-plus minutes of ice time. He wasn’t alone among the Toronto D-corps as Jake Gardiner had an awful turnover on the Kuraly goal and finished with a minus-2 himself.
*No shots on net in 12:06 for Jake DeBrusk, who also didn’t bring his "A" game in a setting where he usually excels and does some pretty clutch things.
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