The Bruins travel to Toronto tonight to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game is the fourth game against Original 6 opponents in the last six nights for the B's. The Bruins are looking to bounce back from a shootout loss to the Rangers in New York on Saturday night, while the Leafs are trying to get back on track after a somewhat disappointing Western Canadian road trip (1-2).Just who are these Maple Leafs that you speak of?
Toronto Maple Leafs 7-7-4; 18 pts (4th in Northeast)
Leading Goal Scorer
Mikhail Grabovski 8 Goals (8-4-12)
Goaltending
Vesa Toskala 16 GP 7-5-3 3.24 GAA .878 Sv%
Curtis Joseph 5 GP 0-2-1 3.21 GAA .873 Sv%
Guys Who Like to Drop the Gloves
Jamal Mayers 27 PIMs, 3 Fighting Majors
Ryan Hollweg 29 PIMs, 2 Fighting Majors
Luke Schenn 22 PIMs, 2 Fighting Majors
'08-'09 Season Series
Bruins vs. Leafs this season: 1-1
11/6 vs. TOR 5-2 Win
10/23 vs. TOR 4-2 Loss
Injury Report
Boston
Andrew Ference: Out 6-8 weeks (Broken Tibia)
Toronto
John Mitchell: I-R (Shoulder)
Mike Van Ryn: Out Indefinitely (Concussion)
Things to Look for Tonight:
- Tim Thomas in net for the B's and Vesa Toskala gets the nod for the Leafs.
- Tonight will be Claude Julien's 100th game behind the Bruins' bench. Here is a list of guys that never made it that far:
Cooney Weiland 1940-1941: 96 Games, 58-20-18
Frank Patrick 1935-1936: 96 Games, 48-36-12
Butch Goring 1986-1987: 93 Games, 42-38-13
Phil Watson 1962-1963: 84 Games, 16-55-13
Dave Lewis 2006-2007: 82 Games, 35-41-6
Rick Bowness 1991-1992: 80 Games, 36-32-12
Mike Keenan 2000-2001: 74 Games, 33-26-7-8
Fred Creighton 1979-1980: 73 Games, 40-20-13
Georges Boucher 1949-1950: 70 Games, 22-32-16
Cy Denneny 1928-1929: 44 Games, 26-13-5
Mike O'Connell 2003: 9 Games, 3-3-3
- Can the B's take advantage of Toronto's shaky PK (league worst 72.2%)?
- The B's need to test Toskala (.878 Sv%, #41 in NHL)
- Will we see the big hits that we saw in the last two B's-Leafs game?
- Leafs fans remind me a lot of Sox fans (before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and the pink hat invasion happened). It must be nice to live in a city that is so passionate about hockey.
- Will the Bruins D-Men step up in Ference's absence?
Let's check in with the guys from Leafs TV for a preview of tonight's game. Unfortunately, the always entertaining Joe Bowen sat this one out...
Today's Embarrassing YouTube Fan Video