When the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Boston Bruins at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night, they might have goals beyond just winning a game.The Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout one month ago on November 2 at TD Garden. However, the most noteworthy incident from that game was the controversial play made by Bruins captain Brad Marchand with Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren, who was placed on injured reserve the following day after suffering a lower body injury and hasn’t appeared in action since. What the Maple Leafs, their supporters, and a large portion of the Toronto media believed to be a slew-foot and, if not that, a dirty play was not called for a penalty.
Enforcer Ryan Reaves, the one player the Maple Leafs really need to answer the bell in a situation like that, yelled a lot to the media and from the bench over the course of the next two days, but neither he nor any other Leafs players responded to a play they believed went too far.
Reaves remarked, “I’m just lucky I wasn’t on the ice with him.” “Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any shifts against them because of their last change. That is hockey.
When asked about Reaves’ and the Leafs’ team’s lack of response, head coach Sheldon Keefe of the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t hold back.
“I have addressed my dislike for everything about it. We don’t want to be about that,” Keefe said to the media. We have occasionally handled those circumstances quite well in the past. However, consistency is key.
This season, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Reaves and the Leafs have only been consistent in their talk. Thus, even though 5-foot-9, 176-pound Brad Marchand was the target of a subliminal threat above, neither the Boston Bruins captain nor the team should be overly concerned for his safety on Saturday, as they didn’t appear to be paying much attention to practice on Friday. For the first time since Charlie McAvoy viciously headshot Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson on October 30, the Bruins found themselves in a similar situation to the Maple Leafs on November 22 when they took on the Panthers. Despite McAvoy’s four-game suspension, the Panthers deserve credit for making his life miserable during their Thanksgiving Eve 3-1 victory over the Bruins. The Bruins intend to respond to any shenanigans from the Maple Leafs on Saturday, just as they did that evening.
Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters on Friday, “The same way we did in Florida [with Charlie McAvoy], we’re going to make sure we’re all in there together if anything does occur.” However, we are aware that we have a hockey game and that the standings are fairly close.and two clubs predicted to finish in the top half of the division. This is a major game that is being played on a Saturday night in Toronto. We’re concentrated on the work at hand.
In contrast to the Maple Leafs on November 2, the Bruins responded when 6-foot-2, 214-pound San Jose Sharks winger Givani Smith hit Bruins captain Brad Marchand with a textbook hit from behind during the second period of the Bruins’ 3-0 victory over the Sharks on Thursday night. Following the initial roughing up of Smith by Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort, 6-foot-3, 220-pound Bruins winger Trent Frederic went after Smith in the third period and engaged him in a toe-to-toe match.
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