BOSTON—Even if almost nobody fights in the NHL anymore, styles make fights. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins are two elite teams built for different visions of how the game is played, and should be played. Toronto skates and plays fast; Boston skates fast but slows you down, and by the way, watch yourself there. You could get hurt if you’re not careful.In Game 2 of this first-round series, the Bruins played like Bruins. It was good old-fashioned hockey, turning Toronto’s progressive fun approach into a sort of skittering frivolity, veering to stupidity. (The officiating was old-fashioned, too, and not always in a good way.) All season Mike Babcock has been preaching heavy hockey, which isn’t the Bruins turning people into wallpaper so much as it’s the Bruins winning every puck battle that matters for two periods. Bruins 4, Leafs 1, and the series is tied 1-1.“They came out and they played well,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “They do that every single time, they did it every game last series, and we found a way through. So it is what it is. You weather the storm and you move on and you play your game.“I mean, we’re not going to change who we are. We’re going to play our game, and it worked for us in Game 1. I thought we did a decent job. We’re down two after one. Big deal. You move on. We have to find a way to score a goal, and we’ll do the same thing in Game 3.”He also said “each person in this room expected that.” So Toronto’s reaction — along, perhaps, with ice that was softened by a T-shirt-wearing sunny day in Boston — was the problem. The Bruins were smashing into skaters, crashing into Andersen, mashing anybody they could, rattling the boards. Even Mitch Marner got hit, and he’s supposed to be as elusive as Wayne Gretzky, as Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said.These aren’t the Bruins that rampaged through Vancouver to the ...
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