BOSTON – The Bruins will be aiming to snap their three-game losing streak when they host the rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at TD Garden in the clubs’ first matchup since last season’s seven-game playoff showdown.
"It never hurts having one of your biggest rivals in town,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “Both Original Six, last year's series alone. That easily gets the juices going. Might be a good diversion. But the main focus needs to be on our own progress."
Montgomery said that he can already see the Maple Leafs taking on the characteristics of their new head coach, Craig Berube, with a “more direct” style of play.
“Watching the tape, you can see the identity of their head coach,” Montgomery explained. “They want to be a forechecking team, they want to put you under duress to cause turnovers and create scoring chances. That’s Chief.”
Like the Bruins, Toronto has gotten off to an uneven start with a 4-4-0 record and is coming off two straight losses – a 6-2 setback against Columbus on Tuesday and a 5-1 defeat to the Blues on Thursday.
“When it’s this early – I couldn’t even tell you their record,” said Charlie Coyle. “I don’t worry about records right now. You know they’re gonna be a good team. Whatever their record shows or doesn’t show, they’ve been a good team for a while and I’m sure under a good coach like that, hard-nosed coach, he has them playing a good style of hockey and a hard-nosed style of hockey.
“We’re expecting a hard game tonight, just like we usually do against these guys. It’s up to us to be prepared and show them what we got.”
