Toronto Maple Leafs @ Boston Bruins
TD Garden, Boston, MA
7:00 p.m. ET; CBC, CITY, NESN
SBN: Stanley Cup of Chowder
Matchup
Both teams are on the tired side of a back-to-back, but with different motivation going into today's match. Yesterday, the Boston Bruins won their match 4-1, and the Leafs lost theirs 4-1.
The Bruins were bounced down the lineup to fourth place in the Atlantic last night by that other blue and white team, so they are not going to be happy to rest on the laurels of last night's will. (Do you get laurels for beating Buffalo?)
The Leafs, who have never really played any game of significance against the Bruins, went 2-1-1 against them last year, and are 0-1-1 so far this year. The last game was a shootout loss, proving they are capable of prying a point out of teams higher up in the standings.
Painful thoughts from yesterday:
Leafs have scored two goals in their last 11 periods.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 16, 2016 Leafs outscored 16-3 in losing four straight for the first time since October.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 16, 2016 Morgan Rielly has the Leafs only even-strength goal in the last four games. Babcock: "We haven’t scored in a long time if you look at it."
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) January 16, 2016 Leafs Lineup
Likely unchanged from yesterday, unless Babs decides he wants to spring Rich Clune from the pressbox.
Grabner - Kadri - Komarov
Matthias - Bozak - Parenteau
Winnik - Holland - Lupul
Leivo (or Clune?) - Froese - Boyes
Gardiner - Phaneuf
Marincin - Rielly
Hunwick - Polak
Bernier
Bruins Lineup
Marchand-Bergeron-Connolly
Beleskey-Spooner-Eriksson
Vatrano-Kemppainen-Hayes
Rinaldo-Talbot-Ferraro/Randell
Chara-Trotman
Seidenberg-C. Miller
Krug-K. Miller
Rask--likely starter
Is Pastrnak out? Seems like he might be. He was scratched with an upper-body injury last night vs. the Sabres.
Prediction
5th straight loss by the usual hard-fought 3-2, where the Leafs win the analytics battle and lack exactly one Nylander. OK maybe two Nylanders.
