By: Eamonn McLean | Follow me on Twitter/X @EamonnMcLean44
After a successful weekend that saw them win games against the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken, the Boston Bruins will head north to face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Tuesday’s contest will be the season’s second matchup between the two teams, with Boston winning the prior game 4-3 in overtime. The Bruins enter Tuesday’s game with a 6-6-1 record, fourth in the National Hockey League’s Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs are 6-5-2, third in the Atlantic, most recently dropping a 2-1 overtime decision against the Minnesota Wild. Here are some things to look out for during Tuesday night’s game.
How will David Pastrnak Respond?
David Pastrnak was benched for the third period during Sunday’s win over Seattle for what Head Coach Jim Montgomery called a “Coach’s decision.”. Montgomery called out Pastrnak during last year’s playoff series against the Maple Leafs. The result? Pastrnak scored the series-winning goal in game seven. How Pastrnak responds to being benched is something to keep an eye on.
Will Tyler Johnson Play?
After signing a professional tryout agreement with the team, Tyler Johnson finally signed a one-year deal with the Boston Bruins yesterday. The Spokane, Washington native is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, and scored 17 goals last season as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Johnson could be an option tonight for a Bruins team playing it’s third game in four nights.
Special Teams Contrast
While Boston has had their fair share of struggles on the man advantage this season, Toronto has had it much worse. The Maple Leafs power play has been successful only 10% of the time this season, the second worst rate league-wide. With Toronto boasting multiple offensive superstars in Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander, their struggles on the power play are very surprising.
However, the Leafs have gotten solid results from their penalty kill this year. They have the ninth best penalty kill in the NHL, killing penalties 84.3% of the time. Like Toronto, Boston’s power play has struggled, scoring on only 14.8% of it’s chances, a rate that has them 25th league-wide. Can the Bruins power play find a way to get past a strong Leafs penalty kill?
Potential Goaltending Matchup
Both Joonas Korpisalo and Jeremy Swayman recorded shutouts this past weekend for the Boston Bruins. Will Montgomery go back to Swayman, or potentially give Korpisalo only his fifth start as a Bruin? Meanwhile for Toronto, Anthony Stolarz has played in eight of the Maple Leafs thirteen games this season, and has a .919% save percentage, and a 2.38 goals against average. Joseph Woll missed the beginning of the season due to injury, but has made three appearances since then. It seems likely that Craig Berube gives Stolarz the net for tonight’s game.
All-Time Records
In 689 games between these two Original six franchises, Boston holds a record of 309-269-98-13 against the Maple Leafs. Of those 689 games, 61 of them have been played at Scotiabank Arena, where the Bruins have a 31-20-2-8 record. Puck drop for tonight’s game is scheduled for 7:00 P.M. Eastern, and will be broadcast on NESN.
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