Leafs playing better - can they keep it up?

“That ending would have been great last spring.” Joe Bowen, Toronto Maple Leafs play by play voice.

Moments after the Maple Leafs won in Boston on Tuesday night, Joe Bowen – with his voice hoarse – screamed at the top of his lungs to his television audience “that ending would have been great last spring.”

Yes, last spring still haunts the Maple Leafs. But it may not any longer, after a victory in Boston Tuesday night.

After the game, Randy Carlyle took a deep breath, exhaled and told the media what many fans were thinking.

“Hopefully it bleeds some of the demons out of us.”

It may have been just another regular season game in January. But for the Toronto Maple Leafs it was more than that. It could be a boost of confidence this team has been sorely lacking.

With a number of players fighting the flu, the Leafs showed some resiliency, heart, and determination.

Playing the Bruins - everyone remembers what happened last year in Boston, failing to close out game 7 of the first round of the playoffs despite a 4-1 lead in the middle of the 3rd period - has never been easy for Toronto. 

The win last night was Toronto’s first regular season victrory in Boston since March 2011.

“It almost felt like it was the playoffs again and this time we came out on top,” said Jake Gardiner. “It’s just too bad it wasn’t last year that it happened.”

It was just Toronto’s third regulation time win on the road in the last 15 road games.

A week after it seemed the Leafs had reached a season low, the team has now won back to back games and finds itself back in a playoff position (although you get the feeling that will be changing constantly the rest of this season).

“Better efforts, that’s for sure,” said Carlyle when discussing the play of the team since last week’s dreadful 6-1 loss to Carolina. “We’ve raised our compete level and we’re going to have to continue to do that to get points. The most frustrating part for our hockey club has been that we haven’t been able to achieve that with any consistency.”

Jonathan Bernier was big for the Leafs, making 38 saves including 15 in a third period that had the feel of a playoff game.

“It’s not easy to come in this building, especially what they went through last year losing in Game 7,” said Bernier. “It shows a lot of character for the team to come here and win it.”

“I thought we reacted in good way. It was fun.”

There were other positives for the Leafs as well. Tyler Bozak had a pair of goals and an assist in the victory and now has 17 points in his last 14 games helping to solidify that top line.

Phil Kessel has seven points in his last three games. James van Riemsdyk has five points in his last three games. 

Peter Holland returned from the minors providing a solid 11 minutes of ice-time, as the Leafs look for some offensive production on the 3rd and 4th lines. While Jay McClement - who Carlyle feels has played "way too much" in recent games - was back to playing 11:51, after games in which he was playing 18 to 19 minutes.

The Leafs have been battling themselves, the opposition and a flu bug over the last few days, making the victory that much sweeter.

“We’ve had up to 8 players went through that the last three days, hopefully it doesn’t get to the coaching staff….or the media,” smiled Randy Carlyle.

Yes, Randy Carlyle smiled. For one night anyway, he had reason to.