from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,
A couple minutes before the hats came flying down, Jake Gardiner smashed his stick over the crossbar. “The whole game was frustrating and it kind of just built-up at the end there,” he said. David Pastrnak and the Boston Bruins still had more pain to inflict.
Along with Nikita Zaitsev, he’d been handed the dossier to the toughest assignment in hockey right now: Trying to do something, anything, to neutralize Pastrnak’s flash while dealing with the relentless puck pursuit of linemates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
It didn’t go well. In fact, this was an outright disaster for a Toronto Maple Leafs team that went from the high of a 105-point season to staring down the barrel of an early spring exit inside 72 hours.
Zaitsev was on the ice for four goals inside a 10-minute stretch during the first period. One banked off his left skate, another saw him lose positioning during a penalty kill and a third came when he shaded Marchand so closely that he skated right out of the picture.
He was given six shifts inside that window and four ended with the foghorn blaring through TD Garden.
Below, watch the post-game press conference with Mike Babcock ("they're dominating us") and the game highlights of the 7-3 Boston win.
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