3 least impressive Boston Bruins players from 6-4 loss to Toronto Maple Leafs feat. 

The Boston Bruins have gotten the better of the Toronto Maple Leafs in each of their last four meetings in the postseason (2013, 2018, 2019, 2024), with each matchup resulting in Boston's Game 7 victory at TD Garden.

However, the Leafs managed to reverse their fortunes against the Bruins on Saturday night, with the only reward being a pair of points in the standings in January rather than a postseason victory in April.

The Bruins were defeated by their Original Six rivals by a 6-4 final score. Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies netted his first career hat trick in the NHL, while Mitch Marner continued potentially pricing himself out of a new contract in Toronto with a five-point performance.

The Leafs opened the scoring with goals from Jake McCabe and Knies before Boston responded with goals from Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic; their tallies were their ninth and sixth goals of the season, respectively.

Entering the third period, the Leafs got an additional two goals from Knies to complete the hat trick along with a tally from Mitch Marner. While David Pastrnak scored twice in the final frame for the Bruins, it wasn't enough to propel them past Toronto.

Jeremy Swayman finished with 23 saves on 27 shots, while Joseph Woll stopped 27 of the 31 shots the Bruins fired his way.

3 least impressive Boston Bruins players from 6-4 loss to Toronto Maple Leafs

#1. Jeremy Swayman

The Bruins and Swayman engaged in a hotly contested Mexican standoff with their contract negotiations prior to the 2024-25 season. But after missing all of training camp and most of the exhibition schedule, the two sides finally came to an agreement that made Swayman one of the highest-paid goalies in the NHL despite having never played more than 44 games in a season.

Right now, that contract is looking more and more like a massive overpayment compared to the results Swayman has delivered. After allowing four goals on the 27 shots he faced, he finished the night with a porous .852 save percentage. His performance brought his stat line to 13-13 with a .891 save percentage for the season.

#2. Elias Lindholm

Finishing with a team-worst -3 rating, Lindholm was caught out of position multiple times when the Leafs were attacking and also failed to generate anything on the offensive side of the puck.

#3. Brandon Carlo

While Carlo finished with an even plus-minus rating, Knies made him look like a fresh faced rookie when he rushed past him with ease en route to scoring his second goal of the game in the third period.

As a defenseman the Bruins rely upon, that just can't happen.