Bruins' Seven-Game Winning Streak Snapped in Toronto

TORONTO - Brad Marchand scored the lone Bruins goal on a penalty shot as the Black & Gold fell, 2-1, to the Maple Leafs in the finale of the club's three-game road trip on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena. The setback snapped Boston's seven-game winning streak and dropped the B's to 10-2-0 on the season.
"We weren't very sharp," said coach Jim Montgomery. "You've got to give some of the credit to the Maple Leafs; they checked extremely well, they protected middle ice well. But you're on the third game of a five-day road trip and we go in the third period and it's 2-1 and we gave ourselves a chance. We had enough opportunities to tie the game up. I just like our ability to manage games and give ourselves opportunities to have outcomes.
"I love the way we keep competing, I love how we're becoming a more intelligent hockey team in managing games. And there's a lot of areas for us to get better at, so that's exciting as well."

Boston fell behind, 1-0, at 7:19 of the first period when Auston Matthews potted his first goal of the game. Marchand tied things, 1-1, at 4:59 of the second when he finished off a nifty backhander for his sixth career penalty shot goal and his 800th career point. Matthews, however, tallied his second of the game on the power play with 5:53 remaining in the middle frame for the eventual winner.
"It was a bit of a different morning, obviously, for the group," Marchand said when asked if the outside events surrounding the Bruins' signing of Mitchell Miller had any effect on the team's performance. "I can't say that necessarily affected how we played tonight. We're all good pros and should be able to park whatever you need to when you come to the rink and just worry about playing the game.
"I just think that they were ready for us. We need to expect that every time we go into an opposing team's building that they're going to bring their best. They did that, they came out hard, they kind of set the tempo early…our power play didn't come up when we needed it to. We need to be a little bit better there."
David Krejci, returning to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury, said the Bruins must be prepared for their opponents' best moving forward given their stellar start to the season.
"We have to realize that every time we play a game now, that team's gonna be ready for us. That was a good test for us. We've got to learn from it and make sure we're as prepared as the other team," said Krejci, who added that "I felt alright, hopefully better each day" in his return, during which he played 17:03 with two shots on goal.
Taylor Hall said the Bruins should embrace the challenge that comes with being at the top of the standings.
"We're gonna get every team's best. And we want that, we want that challenge. We're gonna have to play better than we did tonight. It's been a really good run," said Hall. "It certainly wasn't a game where we got blown out or outplayed the whole game. We had our moments and we've got to regroup now."

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