Boston Bruins: Top 5 games to get pumped up about in October
By jc
October 19th: at Toronto Maple Leafs
The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs must be tired of each other at this point. They met 11 more times last year after 11 matchups the year before. Boston won 12 of these 22 games, including eight playoff wins over two series.
Let’s face it: Boston and Toronto appear set to meet in the first round for the third year in a row. What remains to be seen, however, is which team earns home ice.
With home ice likely on the line, these head to head matchups with Toronto are so important. The Bruins don’t want to give Toronto an early advantage in the season series.
The October 19 matchup gives Boston its first crack at Toronto’s new-look defense. Toronto brought in the likes of Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci over the summer. Barrie is a big name who should eat up some important minutes for the Leafs.
It’ll be interesting to see if someone like Barrie can do a decent job against the Bergeron line. Bergeron, Marchand, and Pastrnak dominated the Leafs over the past two years. Pastrnak himself had nine points in the four regular season games last year.
Unfortunately, this Bruins-Leafs matchup will be less exciting since Toronto waved goodbye to Jake Gardiner and Nazem Kadri. Gardiner was always good for a few turnovers, while nobody riled up Boston’s stars like Kadri.