Maple Leafs Beat Bruins, On Track for Playoffs

Could Toronto’s long wait be coming to an end at last? The Maple Leafs toughed out a shootout point over the Bruins in Boston last night, keeping their hopes alive of a first post-season appearance in nine years.

Nobody can claim that Toronto is the best team in hockey right now, or will be come the playoffs (although there may be those who dare to dream on Bay Street, knowing that in the playoffs anything can happen), but what the Leafs most certainly are is tough to beat. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you’ve been easy to beat for the past ten years, and living purely on memories of faded glory for fifty, tough to beat looks pretty darn good right now.

It didn’t look good at the start of March when the long-expected Toronto collapse happened, the Maple Leafs losing five straight games, but they got losing shootout points from two of those defeats and every point counts in a strike-shortened season. Leafs fans still believed.

Tonight, the Leafs return to Toronto to take on the lowly Panthers at the Air Canada Centre, feeling good about themselves after taking three points form four available at home and on the road against the Bruins.

The win on Saturday in Toronto was something of a mugging for the Bruins, with Toronto maximizing its chances while the Bruins failed to make the most of theirs. Last night was tougher, even against the Bruins’ currently misfiring offense, but the old Leafs would have wilted. These guys toughed it out, and that’s the difference.

Toronto is an NHL betting favorite tonight on home ice against the hapless Panthers, who are enduring the season from Hell. But that won’t concern the Leafs – they know they have a job to do, and feeling sorry for the Panthers won’t get it done. Nobody felt sorry for the 13th time Stanley Cup Champions when they were down. The Panthers have dominated the Leafs in recent years, winning eight of the past eleven – the Leafs will be eager to start turning that around tonight.