The Bruins and Maple Leafs are likely to be battling for playoff positioning for the remainder of the season, the two tied in points entering Tuesday’s contest at TD Garden.

Each of the two was looking to make a statement Tuesday, the first of two remaining games against with other this year.

A statement was made by both teams. For the Bruins, however, it was a statement that they didn’t want to make. To put it in simple terms: they just weren’t good enough.

“We clearly needed to be better and have been. Against this team, you have to take care of the puck. We didn’t do enough of it early on, obviously. We weren’t prepared to play. Again, shared responsibility. That’s our job as coaches to get them ready to play and players have to be ready, know the magnitude of the game,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said.

“We’ve been going well lately, so it was a bit of a surprise there in that area, that we weren’t sharp early on. And if all those things don’t happen, you need your goaltender to bail you out, and that didn’t happen, either. Give them credit for starting on time. That’s where the game got away from us. A tough team to chase the game against.”

After David Pastrnak’s power play tally answered Colin Blackwell’s opening strike, Toronto scored the game’s next five goals. The Bruins pushed in the third period, clawing back to make it a 6-4 game after trailing by five, but it was too little too late.

"You’re going to make some mistakes when you're under pressure. Some of these, we had a turnover early and they get a quick play to the net, deflection, stoppable puck, but shouldn't have been turned over and then you have a blocked shot,” Cassidy said. Those are things that, to me, is a bit of a lack of focus, knowing where to go with the puck before you get it.”

Already without No. 1 goalie Jack Campbell, the Leafs lost Petr Mrazek in the first period with an injury, replaced by Erik Kallgren. Kallgren stopped 23 of 26 shots he faced.

There was a lot of ugly to the Bruins game, ugliness that started early in the contest with Connor Clifton’s pass to Matt Grzelcyk missing its mark and seconds later ending up in the back of the net behind Bruins’ goalie Jeremy Swayman.

Clifton’s indecision with the puck later in the period too resulted in a puck going the other way and a puck once again ending up in the back of the Bruins net.

With Mike Reilly a healthy scratch, making room for newly acquired Hampus Lindholm and newly acquired Josh Brown yet to make his Bruins debut, Cassidy did not hold back when addressing his lineup for Thursday’s contest with the Devils.

“There’ll be some changes Thursday, there has to be. There were some guys tonight where their play wasn’t good enough,” Cassidy said. “That’s what makes your team better, internal competition. We may have done it anyway. This wasn’t the end all be all, but this certainly accelerated the process.”

The Bruins have been rolling since the calendar flipped to 2022, Tuesday’s loss is not one that is going to set off the panic alarm
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But still, it’s a frustrating result to what should have been a better, closer hockey game.
The Bruins will head to Toronto on Apr. 29 to end their regular season. It’s likely that won’t be the last time these two see each other this season.

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