Another Bruins vs. Leafs playoff series would be highly entertaining originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON — The Bruins haven’t played their best hockey since the NHL All-Star break, and it could potentially cost them first place in the Atlantic Division and one of the Eastern Conference’s top-two seeds in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That might actually turn out to be a positive for the B’s, though, because the longer the Florida Panthers sit atop the division, the likelihood of the Bruins playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round increases.
And if Thursday night’s Bruins-Leafs matchup at TD Garden was any indication of what a playoff series between these teams would look like in April, then sign us up.
That was 60 minutes of highly entertaining hockey.
It’s clear these two teams don’t like each other one bit, and it took less than four minutes for the action to get heated. Jake McCabe cross-checked both Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand to put the Leafs on the penalty kill.
The Bruins made the Leafs pay with a 5-on-3 power-play goal by David Pastrnak to open the scoring. Marchand appeared to have a message for the Leafs’ bench after the goal.
These teams combined for 26 penalty minutes in the second period alone, with multiple post-whistle scrums erupting. Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who unsurprisingly was in the middle of several tussles, fought Bruins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon in the period.
Even Jeremy Swayman got involved in an altercation that started at the top of his crease in the second period. The Bruins netminder also wanted to fight Leafs goalie Joseph Wall in the third period after a scrum in Toronto’s zone, but the challenge wasn’t accepted.
The final tally showed 91 hits and 50 penalty minutes for both teams combined. Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe called it “by far” the most physical game they’ve played all season.
The Bruins ultimately prevailed with a 4-1 win, sweeping the four-game season series. It was Boston‘s seventh consecutive victory over Toronto, an opponent the Bruins have owned over the last 10 years, including three first-round playoff series triumphs in 2013, 2018 and 2019.
“It was just an emotional game, for both sides,” Marchand said in the locker room postgame. “They brought it as well. It kind of starts when you get cross-checked in the face, in the throat pretty early. That’s going to get anyone kind of riled up. From that point forward, it was an emotional game all the way through for both…