Three Takeaways from the Bruins’ 3-2 Win Over the Maple Leafs

A short-handed Boston Bruins team gave itself no excuses against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night at TD Garden and pulled out a 3-2 shootout win to improve to 9-0-1 .

Three takeaways from the divisional matchup win, below:

If there were nerves, Lohrei didn’t show them. The 22-year-old defenseman looked calm and confident in his NHL debut after getting called up from AHL Providence earlier this week. Lohrei skated on a pair with Brandon Carlo, logged 21:28 of total ice time and picked up his first NHL point on Pavel Zacha’s first period goal that made it 1-0.

“He was dynamite,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said postgame. “He played really well. His poise with the puck in all three zones was very noticeable – made a lot of intelligent hockey plays.”

Lohrei never panicked with the puck on his stick and made strong plays through the middle instead of dumping it to a veteran on the ice. What’s more, Lohrei got three shots off and leaned into the offensive side of his game that he’s known for.

“I felt good, I felt pretty good. Good first one, tried to just keep it simple and obviously had some good partners to work with,” Lohrei said postgame.

Bruins assistant coach Joe Sacco, who handles the defense, was not shy with throwing Lohrei into the mix throughout the night and also slotted him onto the penalty kill where the Ohio State product fared well.

“It feels great. You get pretty comfortable and it’s just good for your confidence when they keep calling your number to go back out there,” Lohrei said.

While the absences of Matt Grzelcyk, Charlie McAvoy and Derek Forbort aren’t ideal for Boston’s defensive group, it was a good sign that the team can depend on some of its young talent to pick up the slack.

Ahead of Thursday night’s matchup, DeBrusk had three points through eight games – all of which were assists. It’s safe to say that the winger’s rebound tally at 1:36 of the second period to make it 2-0 was a weight off his shoulders, and his nifty shootout floater goal was the cherry on top to officially bring his swagger back.

“I thought he was humming all night long,” Montgomery said. “I thought he was the ‘JD’ we saw a lot of nights last year. Sometimes it takes that first one to go in and then it’s like that monkey’s off your back and you just start being the player you are.”

DeBrusk was skating on the second line with Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle, and the trio was finding each other all over the ice. The past couple of games you could feel it building for DeBrusk, and by staying consistent, he was finally able to hop in on the fun of the early season success.

“It’s been obviously a lot of fun winning games but personally, it’s been very frustrating. I think that’s one of those things that you try not to get in your own head and stuff like that,” DeBrusk said postgame.

“You’ve got to take small steps and really lean on the guys – they had my back and the last couple games have been really cheering for me and it was nice to come through and help the team win.”

DeBrusk, who finished the 2022-23 season three goals shy of 30, will look to start rolling from here on out.

The first period was pretty slow and the Maple Leafs took over in the second, but the Bruins never counted themselves out of this one, and that mindset has lifted the squad to its current 9-0-1 record. Down three of their regular defenseman, the B’s came out with a higher compete level in the third and got back to their structure before talent took over in the shootout to seal the win.

“Something that I think we take a lot of pride in – if you want to be a playoff team and you want to be good down the stretch, you have to be able to regroup and find a way to change momentum throughout the game and bend and not break,” Brad Marchand said postgame.

Jeremy Swayman, who made 33 saves in his fifth start of the season, was a key piece of the victory as the Bruins have once again been able to rely on their goaltending to give them a chance to win each night. It’s Boston’s collective play, though, that has gotten it through recent lineup adversity.

“It just shows our depth, attention to detail and our coaching staff giving us a game plan every night to win,” Swayman said.

The Bruins will now head to Detroit to take on the Red Wings for the second time in one week after beating them 4-1 at TD Garden on Saturday. While Thursday’s performance wasn’t perfect, it still secured two points in the standings, and sometimes that’s enough.

“It’s such a fun group to work with because we have a lot to get better at, but we find ways to win,” Montgomery said.