Bruins coach expects bad blood between the Bruins and Leafs tonight.

We may have a rather intense rivalry night ahead of us in the National Hockey League. 

There are a number of match ups on the schedule on Saturday but the Saturday night match up between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs may prove to be exceptionally chippy if the Boston Bruins' head coach is accurate regarding his assessment of tonight's match up. Head coach Bruce Cassidy appeared to predict a night of hostility between the Leafs and the Bruins when he was questioned about the match up by reporters earlier on Saturday. 

Q: Does Cassidy expect hard feelings tonight after last year’s playoff series?

“I hope so,” said Cassidy as per Matt Porter of the Boston Globe. 

The reporter who asked the question was obviously referring to the first round series bewtween the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the kind of series that absolutely could produce bad blood between two rival NHL organizations. The series itself went to a seventh and final game and it was one that undoubtedly still lingers in the back of the minds of several Leaf players, especially the younger and more inexperienced ones, as they were the ones who were eventually eliminated in that game.

There's plenty of reason for the Bruins to have some bad blood and resentment as well from that series in spite of the fact that they eventually emerged as the victors. Early in the series Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri was suspended for three games by the NHL's department of player safety following a brutal hit to 30 year old National Hockey League veteran Tommy Wingels. The fact that Wingels is no longer on the Bruins' roster, and in fact no longer in the NHL at all, may take some of the edge off of the resentment that the Bruins locker room has lingering from that series but it likely won't be enough. Nazem Kadri is not only still very much a Maple Leaf but he plays a very significant role on the Maple Leafs' roster and there will likely be a big target on his back this evening. 

Puck drops any second now so don't miss a second of the action.

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