If you are looking for an explanation as to why Brad Treliving hasn't gone big-game hunting at this week's trade deadline, we submit: this week in Toronto Maple Leafs hockey.
Sure, the Leafs scooted by a depleted, demoralized and lottery-bound Buffalo Sabres team 2-1 on home ice. Great. Get points.
But in losing 4-1 Thursday at TD Garden, they also dropped two games in four days to the Boston Bruins — their arch nemesis and most likely Round 1 foe — by a combined scored of 8-2. And failed to plant a seed of doubt in the mind of the franchise that has defeated them in three straight playoff series and seven straight regular-season contests.
This is how these Leafs don't measure up, yet, to a divisional opponent that means business and doesn’t lean on excuses.
"Probably our biggest rivalry in the past decade," Bruins captain Brad Marchand told reporters leading up to Boston's final Leafs showdown before April.
"Guys get up for the game, and you can tell they do too. They're always very intense, emotional games. Usually come down to the wire or OT. It's a lot of fun to play against them. Those are the games you want to be part of."
Whether it was Marchand, Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak jumping off the page, or the Bruins' locked-in defence limiting Toronto to zero even-strength goals and seven high-danger chances over 60 minutes, or a dialled-in Jeremy Swayman inviting Joseph Woll to a (declined) goalie fight at centre ice, Boston wanted to be part of this game. This rivalry.
The Maple Leafs? Meh.
Maybe they're saving the passion for April.
Kudos to Toronto's role players for showing some emotion during another loss in Boston. Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, and Jake McCabe were all engaged and went down fighting, literally at times.
Perhaps the flu bug is sapping the Leafs' energy more than we know. ("It's only affecting a couple guys," coach Sheldon Keefe said.)
Maybe Wednesday's sleepy win against Buffalo took more out of them than it seemed leading into a back-to-back.
Hopefully, new Leaf Joel Edmundson, who showed up in time to watch but not participate, can aid in the grind.
"Playoff atmosphere. Sitting up there was tough. All those scrums and fights, that excites me," Edmundson said. "That's playoff hockey. And I think I play my best hockey during playoffs, so I definitely wanted to be out there.”
What's immediately concerning is that Leafs' best players showed little more inspiration in Thursday's 4-1 loss to Boston than in Monday's 4-1 loss to Boston.
The Bruins allowed Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner (who scored Toronto's lone goal on the power-play) limited access to the net in what Keefe described as "by far and away the most physical game we've played this season."
Boston, we remind you, is the team they're chasing, and the Leafs appear content to play underdog, to qualify their effort and claim some moral victories.
Keefe mentioned postgame that the team didn't get into bed until 3 a.m. Wednesday and praised his group's competitiveness.
OK. Well, the Bruins also played three games in four nights, and got the contending Oilers in OT, not the bottom-feeding Sabres.
"Come playoff time, everything changes," Marchand said.
For the Maple Leafs' sake, and considering their dismal results against Boston, fans should hope that's true.
"There's no concern about that," Morgan Rielly said. "We're a month away.
"Once we start playing for real, we want to be ready."
Can't wait to see the Maple Leafs play for real.
Because judging by this week, they're not ready.
Fox's Fast Five
• Edmundson, acquired in Thursday's trade for a couple mid-round picks, has connections.
Toronto assistant coach Mike Van Ryn, who runs the D, won a Cup with Edmundson in St. Louis. He understands the big man's strengths.
Rielly played two-and-a-half seasons with the Manitoba native in junior, as the reunited teammates were both prized prospects for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
"[Treliving] is trying to make the team better. That's all you can ask for," Calle Järnkork said."
Keefe is high on Edmundson's size as well as his toughness in the D-zone and Cup experience.
"Not fun to play against," the coach praised. "We could use a guy like him in game like this here tonight with them being as physical as they were."
• Prospect Cade Weber, acquired from Carolina Thursday for the Leafs' sixth-round pick in 2026, has one goal and 15 assists in 115 NCAA games for Boston University.
But! And hear me out: He is 6-foot-7, 208 pounds, a plus defenceman, and is sporting a black eye in his HockeyDB profile picture.
Weber does not yet have an NHL contract, but this is another low-risk trade reinforcing Treliving's penchant for gigantic defencemen.
• Pastrnak has been on the ice for eight of the 14 goals the Bruins have scored against the Leafs this season.
"He's one of the best players in the league," Calle Järnkrok said. "We have players like him on our team as well. A couple of them. But he's a good player."
• Matthew Knies took an elbow from Brad Marchand in the first period and did not return to the game.
In both games at TD Garden, Marchand took out a Leafs player.
Keefe did not have an update on Knies's condition after the game.
• The Bruins honoured the 2011 champions in the building.
"You don't realize how fast the time goes by," said Marchand, 35, the only active member of that group. "It just feels like yesterday we were together. The memories of our time together, it was so special and so many great stories that we had to talk about."
"I'm still the guy that gets picked on. It's funny. I'm the old guy in here, but when we all get together, I'm the young guy again, so the bullying continues."
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