Hard work shows in their play
Skaters seemed to have little left
TORONTO -- Last Tuesday, on the first leg of their four-game trip, the Bruins worked hard to stave off a third-period Columbus rally that turned a 4-3 Boston lead into a 5-4 Blue Jackets overtime victory.
On Friday, cruising into the third period with a 4-0 lead, the Bruins burned valuable energy to keep the advantage when the Blackhawks stormed back for three straight strikes.
The following night, despite a 5-0 shutout registered by the Predators, the Bruins, according to coach Dave Lewis, showed good effort in the full 60 minutes.
Last night, all that work seemed to catch up to the ragged Bruins in a 5-1 loss to the Leafs.
"You reflect back as a coach," said Lewis, "and you try to look at the three games in four nights. There was a lot of energy used in the Chicago game. A lot of energy used in the Nashville game. Tonight, we had absolutely none, right across the board from the youngest player to the oldest player.
"That is something we have to fight through mentally and physically. That's part of being in the NHL. You have to fight through those things."
On Saturday, Lewis spread out the minutes over four lines, even giving workhorse Zdeno Chara (20:58 of ice time) a relatively easy night. After arriving in Toronto at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, the Bruins cruised through a half-hour practice at the
"I don't think that has any impact," Andrew Alberts said of the schedule. "We had the day off [Sunday], so we shouldn't be tired. Mentally, this was one of the biggest games of the year pointwise. We weren't ready to play mentally."
"It's a little loose and it keeps moving," said Toivonen of the old one, which he used in Saturday's loss to Nashville. "It's kind of wobbly at the bottom.
"But then this one," said Toivonen, pulling on the new mask, "right on my head, up here, it doesn't move at the top at all. It's perfect on my cheekbones."
The new mask was delivered yesterday morning by Tony Priola, the Toronto-based manufacturer who counts Toivonen and Tim Thomas among his NHL clients.
Two weeks ago, when the Bruins visited Ottawa, Priola made a mold of Toivonen's face using plaster of Paris so he could custom-fit the mask. With his previous masks, which were not custom-fitted, Toivonen had to make several tweaks, such as shaving down the padding, to make them fit his face snugly.
"It fits perfect," said Toivonen. "It doesn't shake. It definitely felt comfortable. I've never had anything like it."
Toivonen plans to get a paint job on the mask before debuting it in action. With a smile, he revealed only that he had a design in mind.
"I have that face in my hand," Priola said, pointing to Toivonen, "and we build the mask right off that. So when he's 40 years old and wants to know what he looked like when he was 22, he can just give me a call."
