Sloppy effort costs Bruins, who drop home game to Leafs

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Sloppy effort costs Bruins, who drop home game to Leafs

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Wed, Mar 25, 2026 ·

2 min read

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BOSTON — Just days after one of their sharpest games of the season, the Bruins delivered a sloppy, mistake-filled performance and it cost them.

Against the struggling Maple Leafs , Boston had a rough night, especially on special teams and fell, 4-2, Tuesday at TD Garden.

The loss kept the Bruins from keeping pace with Montreal or gaining ground on the wild card field.

There was a silver lining, albeit only a slight one. Boston will get Toronto ’s first-round draft pick as long as it’s not in the top five. The Leafs’ recent free fall has moved them close to the league’s bottom five, but Tuesday’s win lessens the likelihood, they’ll get there.

Things get tougher for the Bruins, who go from a home game against the floundering Leafs to a road game against first-place Buffalo on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Elias Lindholm got the Bruins on the board quickly. Morgan Geekie fed him on a two-on-one and he picked the top left corner, 5:04 into the game.

Anthony Stolarz was brilliant early in the second to keep the Bruins from building their lead and they’d come to rue the missed opportunities.

Toronto tied the game on a shorthanded goal brutal giveaway that gave Matthew Knies a breakaway. Mason Lohrei hesitated on whether to charge or retreat on a bad pass by Lukas Reichel . The indecision left him flat-footed and Knies poked the puck away from him and raced in and beat Jeremy Swayman to make it 1-1 with 12:33 left.

Another giveaway gave Steven Lorentz another short-handed break away, but Swayman stopped him.

Special teams cost the Bruins again late in the second as Max Domi beat Swayman on Toronto’s 4-on-3 power play to make it 2-1 with 2:52 left in the second.

Toronto made it 3-1, three minutes into the third. A dropped stick redirected the puck in the Boston zone leaving the Bruins chasing the play until William Nylander beat Swayman.

Boston got one back when David Pastrnak’s power play shot caromed off Charlie McAvoy with 14:52 left in the third to make it 3-2.

Swayman finished with 32 saves.

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