23 HRS AGO - Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images A brief break. Happy Friday, folks! Hopefully you’ve had a decent work week and the end of your week is in sight. The Bruins and Leafs have another game-free day today, with Game 4 set for tomorrow night at 8 PM. It seems like a rarity to have two consecutive off days in a playoff series, but is certainly something worth embracing as the games get heavier the longer the series progresses. As the league’s other series shake out, the NHL officially announced that Monday’s Game 5 will start at 7 PM — given that it was a weekday, the realistic options were 7, 7:30, or 8, so...no real intrigue there. Around the league, both Florida and Carolina took 3-0 series leads with road wins on Thursday night. Friday will feature a four-game slate for your viewing pleasure: Rangers at Capitals, Canucks at Predators, Jets at Avalanche, and Oilers at Kings. All four of those series are tied at a game apiece. In Bruins Land, there’s not much happening. Jim Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Sometimes, the chaotic nature of playoff hockey presents a team with unique opportunities. In the Bruins instance, a former teammate provided an unlikely opening in Game 3. Amid a night of tight-checking and brutal officiating, the Maple Leafs had the Bruins on the ropes after Mitch Marner connected with Matthew Knies for the game’s first […] The post Takeaways: Brad Marchand enters takeover mode in Game 3 win appeared first on Bruins Daily. Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Same teams, different country. Just the facts When: Tonight, 7 PM Where: Scotiabank Arena - Toronto, ON How to follow: NESN, ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub Opposing perspective: Pension Plan Puppets Know your enemy Series tied, 1-1 Auston Matthews: 1G-2A-3PTS; Max Domi: 1G-1A-2PTS; David Kampf: 1G-0A-1PT Ilya Samsonov: 1-1-0, 3.03 GAA, .887 save percentage Game notes The Bruins will move away from the friendly confines of TD Garden and enter what is usually a pretty decent atmosphere at Scotiabank Place (at least in the upper levels of the arena) as this first-round series shifts to Toronto. Andrew Peeke will be out for the Bruins tonight, Saturday, and likely beyond. The team officially recalled Mason Lohrei on Tuesday, but there’s been no official word on who will draw in to replace Peeke. Parker Wotherspoon is currently the favorite. While the Bruins look to plug an injury gap, the Leafs may get an injury boost in the Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images Matthews contributes on each Toronto goal to help propel his team’s win. The Boston Bruins dropped Game 2 of the first round, 3-2, against the Toronto Maple Leafs to end the home tilt with the series tied at one game apiece. Auston Matthews netted the game-winner and added assists on the other two Toronto goals. The Bruins were up 2-1 after the first after a power-play goal from Morgan Geekie and buzzer-beater from David Pastrnak. But the Bruins were slower with transitions and cleaning up loose pucks in the slot as Toronto increased their offense and Matthews did what top goal-scorers and point-getters do — score and set up goals. “They improved from Game 1 to Game 2,” Jim Montgomery said. “We didn’t improve enough. We need to get better for Game 3.” Linus Ullmark made 30 saves for the Bruins in the loss. Here are the game’s highlights: First period: The Bruins opened the scoring at 10:18 of the first period on the power play. Morgan Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images And still no idea who will start in net. Just the facts When: Tonight, 7:00 PM Where: TD Garden – Boston, Mass. How to follow: NESN, ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub Opposing SB Nation site: PPP Leafs Know your enemy David Kampf: 1G-0A-1PT; Ryan Reaves: 0G-1A-1PT; Conor Dewar: 0G-1A-1PT Ilya Samsonov: 0-1-0, 4.08 GAA, .826 save percentage Game notes The Boston Bruins are back in action tonight to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference’s first round at the TD Garden! The B’s are up 1-0 in the series, beating the Maple Leafs, 5-1, on Saturday with two power-play goals from Jake DeBrusk and tallies from Johnny Beecher, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic. While the power play was of concern late in the regular season, it turned a page in Game 1. It went 2 for 5 on the night. Out of those five, there was really only one that wasn’t great. The rest got the puck cycling and shots to the net. It’s Collapse

6 DAYS AGO - Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images Jake DeBrusk netted two power-play goals and ended the night with three points to help the B’s get win No. 1. The Boston Bruins took Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ first round with a 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at the TD Garden as Jake DeBrusk helped the power play strike twice. DeBrusk ended the night with three points. “I really liked our team discipline,” Jim Montgomery said. “I liked the execution and the emotion we played with.” The B’s fourth line set the team’s momentum, as Jesper Bosqvist set up Johnny Beecher for the game’s opening goal and the team’s first shot of the game. Pat Maroon delivered hit after hit, including one which sent Timothy Liljegren into the Bruin’s bench. The Bruins found themselves on a 4-on-3 penalty kill to start the second period. Successfully killing it off shifted more momentum their way for a dominating 20 minutes. DeBrusk’s feed to Brandon Carlo for a one-timer extended Collapse

6 DAYS AGO - Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs are fighting again. How do they beat them? By answering these simple questions. Oh Toronto. Our old friend. Our erstwhile foe. How I love to hate you. How I hate to see you and your absolutely apoplectic fanbase that cannot fathom hockey being something their team being willing participants in. How I enjoy watching you fail and refuse to learn the lessons over and over and over. So I guess I enjoy watching the Bruins play them. Weird how that works. The Bruins and the Leafs matchup once again to potentially end each other’s season for the 4th time over the past two decades, and the B’s have triumphed every time so far. It’s been a war, however; Game 7 seems inevitable at this point; no matter how dominantly either side wins Game 1. Further, in spite of the records, the Bruins are about as mortal as any team who threatened to win the division this year can be, and the Leafs Collapse

7 DAYS AGO - Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK Boston holds on, barely, to beat Toronto in regulation, stays alive. This would not be called a pretty win, Boston’s special teams were poor as usual and they gave up some high risk opportunities to league leading Toronto. A few clutch bounces and a great performance in net by Frankel were enough to get the three points and keep themselves in the hunt. Game Notes Magic Number: 17 Elimination Number: 10 The three points for a regulation win were not expected but are very welcome as Boston fights to stay alive. This was only the fourth time Boston won a game at Tsongas. It was only the second time they did so in regulation. Emily Brown got her first goal of the season off of an assist from Tapani who later would score the eventual game winner. The four remaining games are not enough to control their own destiny but they can give them selves a chance and we should know if it is going to happen by this time next week as Collapse

4/18/2024 - Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images Game 1, at least. Welcome to Thursday, folks — and the NHL regular season just about over. There were and handful of games last night and there will be six more tonight, with all six involving Western Conference teams. Let them all have their weird time zone fun. We learned yesterday that Bruins-Leafs Game 1 will, in fact, be Saturday night at 8 PM, as we speculated the other night. Looking at the Western Conference briefly, it looks like the entire playoff picture (seeding included) is set, so I’m not sure why the league hasn’t released a full playoff schedule yet. Maybe that will come after tonight’s games end. In last night’s action, the Maple Leafs iced a pretty standard NHL lineup against Tampa to help Auston Matthews get his 70th goal. He didn’t score, despite throwing 12 (yes, 12) shots on goal and playing more than 21 minutes. Nikita Kucherov did earn his 100th assist of the season though, bolstering his Hart campaign. The Collapse