After the biggest road win of the season on Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings, the Boston Bruins returned to the TD Garden on Tuesday night to host the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs. Leading 1-0 in the second period, the Bruins had three straight power plays only to come up empty.
In the second period, the wheels started to fall off, and they completely fell off. First, Mason Lohrei was outmuscled for a puck at center ice, and Matthew Knies scored on a breakaway to tie the game. Then, later in the period, things really went sideways on a Nikita Zadorov hit.
Boston's big defenseman hit John Tavares from the Maple Leafs from behind into the boards while killing a penalty. Easton Cowan defended his teammate and went after Zadorov. After the dust settled, Zadorov was handed a five-minute major, but no game misconduct. That hit in a 1-1 game doomed the Black and Gold.
Marco Sturm doesn't beat around the bush on Nikita Zadorov's hit on John Tavares
That hit by Zadorov turned the game around. Toronto ended up with a 4-on-3 after all the penalties were handed out. Max Domi ended up scoring a power play goal before the end of the second period for a 2-1 lead on a coverage breakdown from Boston. The major penalty carried over into the third period, and just as Zadorov's penalty expired after his teammates killed off the remaining time, William Nylander scored while the Bruins were scrambling in their own end for a 3-1 advantage.
Charlie McAvoy would score a power play goal to cut the deficit to 3-2, but the Leafs added an empty net goal to seal the 4-2 victory. Before the Black and Gold bounced back on Wednesday night with a 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres in Western New York, Boston coach Marco Sturm didn't beat around the bush on Zadorov's hit and penalty.
“It’s a bad penalty to take a little bit,” said Sturm. “When you end up going into a corner like that, if you’re going to finish a check like that, it’s very, very risky. We just can’t do that. We cannot allow to have that.
“Having said that, he needs to be smarter, too. As a (penalty) killer, you have to be smart about that. You can’t put your team on the brick there, just going in, in the corner, a one-on-one battle just to finish the guy. No, we need to finish the play and not the guy. There’s a big difference. Unfortunately, yeah, it hurt us … and I think in general he just needs to be smarter.”
This time of the year is not the time to be taking those penalties, in the thick of a playoff race where every single point is massive. Sturm isn't wrong, and we'll see if not getting any points against the Maple Leafs will come back to haunt the Bruins at the end of the season.