Haggerty: Still hard to envision Bruins losing series to Leafs

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TORONTO -- When evaluating the meaning of Monday night's Game 3 loss for the Bruins, all one has to do is to look at the balance of the entire best-of-seven series with the Maple Leafs.

In the first two games the Bruins spanked Toronto twice on home ice, 5-1 and 7-3, and effectively humbled the high-powered Leafs while enjoying the upper hand in match-ups, physicality and overpowering offense.

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The result in Game 3 was different: The Maple Leafs posted a 4-2 victory at the Air Canada Centre, cutting the series deficit to 2-1. But to do so, they needed:

-- A horrendously blown call in the first period that led to a Toronto goal,

-- To match their best players against the Torey Krug/Kevan Miller defensive pairing (a combined minus-6 in the loss) to generate offense, and . . .

-- Frederik Andersen to make superhuman saves in the third period to stave off the seemingly perpetual B's comeback.

Oh, and also for the Bruins to ring a few shots off the post.

Not that the B's denied the Leafs credit for their effort, and their victory. Nor did they sugarcoat their own weaknesses.

"I thought we didn't recover out of the offensive zone as defensemen as well as we could have at times to sort of stifle some of those rushes," said Bruce Cassidy. "I thought our top line was fine for the most part; they just didn't finish. [David] Pastrnak got robbed about three or four times, and that goalie made some head-scratching saves at the end. [The Bruins' top line] had a tougher matchup tonight and [the Leafs] were determined to keep them off the score sheet, and they did. We're not surprised by that. They're a very good team. They're at home and it didn't go their way in Boston. It's well-documented that they didn't defend well enough and they put an onus on that.

 

"Having said that, I thought we generated enough offense to win. That was not the problem for us. We just didn't finish well around the net and we gave up some goals in transition that we need to correct."

So a lot of things went right for the Leafs, starting with getting goals and offensive production out of Auston Matthews, Patrick Marleau, Mitch Marner and James van Riemsdyk. And a lot of things went wrong for the Bruins, definitely no longer enjoying home-ice advantage.

Despite all of this, however, the B's still outshot the Maple Leafs by a 42-30 margin and had plenty of quality scoring opportunities from each of their top three forward lines. All three members of Boston's top line hit posts or crossbars, and Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron managed to pile up 22 shot attempts.

These aren't numbers that allow for sustainable success for Toronto in the series.

It's why Pastrnak -- thrice robbed by Andersen among his 18 third-period saves --had a Zen-like approach to the whole thing.

"You see that it happens in your life as well, you know?" he said. "One day you have a great day, and the next morning you wake up and it's an absolutely [expletive] day.

"So it happens. Just like I forget about those first two games, we're going to forget about this one and get better for the next game."

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So what to make of it as we look ahead to Game 4 Thursday night, in which the Leafs will have a chance to tie the series?

It really shouldn't change anybody's notion of which team is going to win this thing, by even one iota. That's this humble hockey writer's opinion, and the guy who broke a Wayne Gretzky record with his six points in Game 2 agrees.

"They played well today, but I still think we're the better team, you know?" said Pastrnak. "We had tough luck around the net and they didn't. So we'll meet up [on Tuesday], forget about this and get ready for Game 4."

The Bruins are the better team, and nothing that happened Monday night changed that feeling.

Now if this scenario plays out again on Thursday, then perhaps it will be time to get a little antsy. But conventional hockey wisdom tells you to believe what your eyes are telling you. And it certainly looks like the Bruins are still the superior team, even as the Maple Leafs enjoyed their moment in the postseason sun on home ice.

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