Toronto Maple Leafs-Boston Bruins: Phil Kessel Returns to Bean Town

After a convincing 6-3 win for Toronto in Columbus with third string goalie Joey MacDonald between the pipes, the Leafs are on a roll. They have won four of their last five all on the road and have points in seven of their last eight games. This is certainly what Leafs Nation was expecting more of with the retooling by their GM Brian Burke in the offseason.

Boston lost a surprisingly lop sided affair in Montreal last night 5-1 to the Habs. The loss allowed Buffalo to retain possession of first overall in the north east division.

Tonight Toronto will roll into Boston to take on the Bruins and with Vesa Toskala still on the mend (groin) and Jonas Gustavsson (heart) going under the knife again, Joey MacDonald will get the start in goal.

Boston may have Toronto’s draft picks but the Leafs have their leading goal scorer from last season and Phil Kessel has been making noise since getting on the ice for the Blue and White. In only 15 games Kessel has 10 goals only three behind team leader Nik Hagman who has played in 26 games this year.

The Maple Leafs are ranked second overall in road scoring at 3.5 goals per game which is in part due to their fifth ranked road power play that is firing at 25.5 percent.

The Bruins don’t have the high powered offence that lead them to the best record in the eastern conference last year and have struggled scoring goals and sit 29th overall in that category. But their goal tending and defensive prowess has carried them so far this year.

Toronto’s defensive zone coverage will have to be better than usual as Boston should be steaming after their last game and has won five straight against the Leafs.

Though the Leafs lead the league in shots on goal averaging 34.3 per game they have had problems with hot goalies and Tim Thomas is certainly one of those.

With the recent form of the Toronto Maple Leafs they have an excellent chance of gaining a couple more points tonight if they can match the toughness of this Bruins team tonight in Boston.

In case you didn’t know, starting Dec. 5 Gabe Morency (formally of The Score ) will be launching his new website. Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter, my B/R counterpart, and I will be throwing down our Podcast “Get The Puck Out ” every Saturday from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

We’ll be giving you our opinion and taking your calls on the hottest topics in the hockey world.

The live podcast will be broadcast in studio from down town Toronto featuring some betting analysis, fantasy advice, trivia, team/player updates, and more puck talk than you can imagine.

Be sure to call in and let your opinion be known. The inaugural show is set for Dec. 12. Don’t miss it, puckheads!

You can catch Morency and “Get The Puck Out” at www.morencysports.com , the site launches Dec. 5.