Caron's on fire/By S. Bradley

Eyewitnesses reported via Twitter that Marty Turco, who’s not yet an official member of the Bruins, was outside Boston’s dressing room after tonight’s 5-4 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto.

So the questions occurred to me, was Turco the second-best NHL goaltender present in the Air Canada Centre?

The Bruins took advantage of Toronto’s two most glaring weaknesses of defense and goaltending — weaknesses that not coaching change is going to fix in a matter of days — to take down the Leafs for the fifth time in five tries this season. Jordan Caron and Tyler Seguin scored a pair of goals each, with Caron running his hot streak to three goals in his last two games. Jonas Gustavsson gave up five goals on 33 shots for the Leafs.

The Bruins won on the scoreboard, despite some iffy goaltending by Tim Thomas (he actually knocked in one of Toronto’s goals). And they also won on the fight card, as Shawn Thornton outpunched Jay Rosehill and Dennis Seidenberg opened up Colby Armstrong’s nose in a rare bout.

And now the Bruins will wait to see if Turco clears waivers by noon Wednesday. A handful of teams, including the Leafs and Tampa Bay, may want to claim him to bolster their goaltending or just to spoil the Bruins’ plans.

Before the game, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said he thought it was 50-50 whether Turco would clear waivers. After the game, it was clear that those were better odds than the chances Toronto will ends its playoff-berth drought. Unless Toronto GM Brian Burke can fire and replace his goalies and defensemen, it’ll be early golf season for the Buds just like every other season since the lockout.

Published By Tue. March 6, 2012 10:08 pm EDT