TORONTO — The NHL’s trading period will cease operations in roughly 48 hours. Saturday night, however, the Bruins have a much bigger sight ahead of them as they go up against the Auston Matthews-less Maple Leafs.
Saturday marks the third game that Matthews will be out of the lineup against the Black and Gold. Though the Leafs are a much better team when Matthews is in the lineup, they are also capable of winning when their star forward doesn’t lace up the skates as indicated by their home-and-home sweep of the injury riddled B’s back in early-November.