The Bruins–Maple Leafs rivalry is a National Hockey League (NHL) rivalry between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The teams both compete in the Atlantic Division and with current NHL scheduling, they meet four times per season.
Both teams are Original Six teams, with their first game played in Boston’s inaugural season in 1924. The two teams have split 16 postseason series against one another, including the 1939 Stanley Cup Finals.
Toronto and Boston are also division rivals in the other two professional leagues in which both cities have teams (Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association). No other pair of Canadian and U.S. cities has three division rivalries.
On January 18, 1964, the defending Stanley Cup champion Maple Leafs lost in Toronto to the last-place Bruins by an 11–0 margin—the largest win of the rivalry and still the most lopsided shutout ever recorded against the Leafs.
The 1969 playoffs saw a four-game sweep by the Bruins. Game one at the Boston Garden was a 10–0 blowout, where Maple Leafs defenceman Pat Quinn bodychecked the Bruins’ Bobby Orr in open-ice, knocking him out and leading to a bench-clearing brawl. The Maple Leafs Forbes Kennedy set records for most penalties in a game (eight), most penalty minutes (38, since bettered), most penalties in a period (six) and most penalty minutes in a period (34).
On February 7, 1976 in a game between Toronto and Boston at Maple Leaf Gardens, Maple Leafs centre Darryl Sittler set an NHL record that still stands by tallying 10 points (6 goals and 4 assists). All his points were scored against rookie goalie Dave Reece in an 11–4 Maple Leafs victory.
On December 30, 1989, the Maple Leafs staged their largest comeback for a win in their team history. The Maple Leafs were down 6–1 to the Bruins, coming back with six unanswered goals to defeat the Bruins 7–6 in overtime. After Mark Osborne had scored the early Leafs goal, the six-goal run was led by two from Eddie Olczyk and a goal each from Vincent Damphousse, Luke Richardson and Gary Leeman, and the overtime winner by Wendel Clark.
The Maple Leafs had drafted goaltender Tuukka Rask in the first round, 21st overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. However, before playing a regular season game for Toronto, he was traded to the Bruins in exchange for former Calder Memorial Trophy-winning goaltender Andrew Raycroft. Toronto management had deemed Justin Pogge their potential goaltender of the future, rendering Rask expendable. It was later revealed the Bruins intended to release Raycroft, which would have made him available to Toronto without having to give up Rask. The trade has since been examined as one of the worst trades in Maple Leafs franchise history; Rask experienced many seasons of success with the Bruins, eventually winning the Stanley Cup and Vezina Trophy, while Raycroft only played two seasons for Toronto, recording disappointing statistics in the process.
Maple Leafs’ Colton Orr and Bruins’ Shawn Thornton fight during a game between the two teams, October 2011
The rivalry was renewed in the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. On May 13, 2013, game seven was played at TD Garden. The Bruins rallied from a 4–1 third period deficit to defeat the Maple Leafs in overtime, 5–4, and advance to the second round. Boston jumped to a 3–1 lead in the series before Toronto won two straight games to force game seven. David Krejci led Boston to a 4–1 victory in game one with a goal and two assists. Joffrey Lupul then scored two goals to lead the Maple Leafs to a 4–2 victory in game two. The Bruins then took game three, 5–2, aided by goalie Tuukka Rask’s 45 saves out of 47 shots. Krejci’s goal at 13:06 of overtime then gave Boston the win in game four, 4–3.[16] But the Leafs bounced back in game five with a 2–1 victory, behind James Reimer’s 43 saves. Reimer then stopped 29 of 30 shots in Toronto’s 2–1 win in game six. In game seven, the Maple Leafs jumped to a 4–1 lead in the third period, aided by two goals by Cody Franson. However, the Bruins began their comeback with Nathan Horton’s goal at 09:18. Then, after pulling goalie Rask to add an extra attacker, Boston scored twice within the last two minutes of regulation to tie the game, first with Milan Lucic’s score at 18:38, and then Patrice Bergeron’s goal at 19:09. Bergeron then scored at 6:05 in overtime to give the Bruins the 5–4 win and the series. It was the first game seven in NHL playoff history in which a team trailing by three goals in the third period won the game and, therefore, the series.
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Can’t wait!!!
Some early game hitting.