The Boston Bruins spent time Tuesday morning addressing the importance of avoiding any kind of letdown Tuesday night. They knew their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs had all the hallmarks of a classic trap game.
The Leafs long ago bowed out of the playoff race, and lost captain Auston Matthews to season-ending injury. The Bruins were coming off a big, emotional win in Detroit Saturday night. Their game Wednesday night in Buffalo, against the hottest team in the NHL since mid-December, loomed as a much more marquee matchup.
"I thought we tried our best to talk about it before the game, like what this spot would be like," Bruins alternate captain Charlie McAvoy said postgame. "...We talked about it all day today, that we couldn't show up flat, and we still did it."
That they did. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they couldn't turn their talk into action. They did come out flat, they did fall into the trap, and ultimately they lost 4-2 to a team they had no business losing to.
"Didn't have emotions against the Toronto Maple Leafs," Nikita Zadorov said. "That's on us for sure. We gotta be better than that. It's important points for us at home, and to drop it like this, it's embarrassing."
Bruins coach Marco Sturm was so aware of the potential for a letdown that he started No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman, a clear indication that he was prioritizing this game and not saving Swayman for the "bigger," second game of the back-to-back.
Swayman did his part, as he has in just about every start he's made since the Olympic break. He made a handful of saves on grade-A, high-danger chances to keep the Bruins in the game. He stopped 31 of the 34 shots he faced and saved 1.35 goals above expected, according to MoneyPuck. Unfortunately, his teammates offered little support.
"The whole game was full of disappointment," Sturm said. "...I think Swayman was pretty much the only guy – I think he played. Other than that, you can pick areas, you can pick players, we just didn't bring it."
Marco Sturm on the Bruins’ 4-2 loss to Toronto: “The whole game was full of disappointment.”
Says Jeremy Swayman was “pretty much the only guy” who showed up. pic.twitter.com/CoKSlAUCnv
— WEEI (@WEEI) March 25, 2026
The Bruins' power play continued to struggle mightily, failing to convert on its first four opportunities before finally breaking through on try number five in the third period. They did generate a few grade-A scoring chances once they got in the zone, but entries and turnovers continued to plague them. They gave up two shorthanded breakaways, with Matthew Knies scoring on one of them to tie the score at 1-1.
Then the Bruins got into penalty trouble of their own, taking two penalties 1:11 apart late in the second period. The second was a five-minute major on Zadorov for boarding John Tavares, a call that Zadorov acknowledged after the game was the right one.
Nikita Zadorov said he thinks his major for boarding was the right call.
Went on to call the Bruins’ 4-2 loss to Toronto “embarrassing.” pic.twitter.com/e07EVVGSNn
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) March 25, 2026
A partially-offsetting penalty on Easton Cowan for retaliating resulted in a 4-on-3 power play for the Leafs, and they scored just 15 seconds into it on a Max Domi goal to give Toronto a 2-1 lead. The Bruins technically killed off the rest of Zadorov's major, but William Nylander scored a backbreaking goal seconds after it ended to make it 3-1.
The Bruins' 5-on-5 game wasn't much better than their special teams. They got outshot 20-13 at 5-on-5 and gave up more than twice as many high-danger chances as they got (11-5 in favor of Toronto).
"We've been spoiled [by our goaltending]," Sturm said. "Even the games we won, if you look at the expected goals against, it was a little bit high. You get spoiled by our goalies. Hopefully it's gonna be a little bit of a wakeup call. Like today, you can't give up over 10 odd-man rushes against. You just can't. Two is already a lot in a game. I think we had 12 today. That says it all how our game was today."
It better be a wakeup call, because now the Bruins face an awfully difficult four-game stretch to close out March: at Buffalo (first in the Atlantic) on Wednesday, vs. Minnesota (third-best in the West) on Saturday, at Columbus (second in the Metro) on Sunday, and vs. Dallas (second-best in the whole NHL) next Tuesday.
After Tuesday's loss, the Bruins are still in the first wild card spot in the East, but they're just one point ahead of the Senators and Islanders, and two ahead of the Red Wings. If they can't keep their head above water over the next week, they may very well slip to the wrong side of the cut line.
