Boston Bruins Can Slash the Toronto Maple Leafs' Psyche with a Few More Wins

The Toronto Maple Leafs will enter Wednesday night’s matchup with the Boston Bruins having won four of their latest five games. That is exactly what they had also done when they visited the TD Garden on Oct. 20 and when the Bruins ventured into the Air Canada Centre earlier this month.

Remember what happened next?

Considering where these divisional rivals are in the standings, the Maple Leafs could arguably consider themselves fortunate. They hold a one-point lead over Boston for the divisional lead and second place in the Eastern Conference.

This despite having spilled each of the first four points in their season series with the Bruins, who have an equal number of wins (14) and regulation/overtime wins (11), plus two games in hand. This despite outscoring the rest of their opponents, 76-60, while the Leafs have yielded a cumulative 13-2 differential in Boston’s favor.

With these two slated to square off in back-to-back engagements, first in Toronto on Wednesday and back at the Garden on Saturday, the Bruins could pose a key barometer as to the Maple Leafs’ long-term outlook for this season.

Just by immersing themselves in the playoff picture, let alone hovering around home-ice territory, the Leafs have given their fanbase a pleasant surprise after missing every postseason since the end of the lockout.

But will this last? And if so, to what extent can Toronto fulfill its fans?

One thing is for certain. If the Leafs cannot get around to getting the better of the Bruins at least once in a while, their efforts to contend for the division crown, home ice in the first round or even a playoff berth altogether will be that much more complicated.

Boston’s core group that has been around since the arrival of Claude Julien in 2007 ought to know this feeling. After two postseason no-shows and two coaching changes in as many years, the Bruins clawed their way into the final playoff spot in Julien’s first season.

Like these Leafs, the 2007-08 Bruins got off to a surprisingly respectable start, going 5-2-0 in their first seven games. Then they renewed their rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens and endured a 6-1 blow at the Bell Centre.

Boston stayed safely above .500 for the remainder of that season, but the quest to get over and stay over the playoff poverty line was a roller coaster, at best. And the Habs were absolutely no help in that department.

By the time they had faced Montreal three times, the 2007-08 Bruins were 9-7-2. After their fourth encounter with the Canadiens, they were 14-9-4. In both cases, the Habs were responsible for just a little less than half of Boston’s regulation losses.

At times later in their schedule, all it took to cut off a solid winning or point-getting streak was for the Bruins to lock twigs with their established nemesis. By the end of the eight-game season series, the Bruins had cultivated only one point from playing Montreal, that being a shootout point in a decision they still lost in their final meeting.

By the end of the regular season, the eighth-seeded Bruins had still won half of their 82 games and finished a mere 10 points behind the top-dog Habs. They put up a memorably valiant (and somewhat revolutionary) fight in their inevitable playoff encounter, but still submitted to the decidedly better team in that year’s head-to-head matchup.

All this left many to wonder what more Julien’s pupils could have done in their first year of operation had things not been so one-sided against Montreal in the regular season.

With at least one or two wins and maybe one or two more overtime/shootout points, the Bruins’ 2007-08 homestretch would have been less tense. They could have drawn somebody other than Montreal for the first round or possibly docked the Habs somewhere lower than first place, or maybe both.

This year could pose a similar scenario for the Maple Leafs, who were 4-0-1 before they suffered their first regulation loss of the season at none other than TD Garden.

They were 8-3-1 overall and unbeaten (4-0-1) on home ice before the Bruins reaped a 7-0 decision at the Air Canada Centre. Accordingly, at the 13-game mark of their schedule, the Leafs had endured half of their first four regulation drawbacks at Boston’s hands.

And starting with that Nov. 5 rout, the Leafs have gone 5-5-1 in their last 11 outings, seeing their record go from 8-3-1 to 13-8-2.

Sound familiar?

With all this being said, the Leafs are still one point ahead in the active Northeast Division footrace. And they could render this entire historical analogy irrelevant with little more than a win, regardless of the fashion or the final score, on Wednesday and/or Saturday.

Otherwise, if the Bruins can carry on their comparatively otherworldly hot streak these next two outings, they will add extra shelf life to the doubt around Toronto.