Some 20 of 29 and counting – the number of games in which the Boston Bruins have scored two or fewer goals this season.

Thursday, a 4-2 stinker in losing to the NHL-worse Colorado Avalanche at home. Saturday night, last in the Atlantic Division Toronto Maple Leafs were in town.

“Start on time, execute well in your own zone, don’t turn pucks over, and you normally go home happy,” Leafs’ head coach Mike Babcock said before first faceoff.

Cup-starved since 1967, the Leafs ponied up $50 million over eight years in the summer of 2015 to bring, arguably, the best coach in the NHL the past decade from south of the border in Detroit to the hub of Canadian hockey.

At $6.25 million per year, Babcock is into Year 2 of the building effort to institute that quote – and a few others – 82 times a year.

The Leafs’ last 10 at 4-4-2 matched the Black and Gold’s into Saturday night, the second of four this season with the Leafs trashing Boston, 4-1, back in the second game of the season. Anton Khudobin in that net loss.

A second outcome Saturday night by the same score.

Tuukka Rask (14-4-2, 1.79 GAA) vs. Frederik Andersen (10-7-4, 2.87 GAA) Saturday night. Rask 15-3-2 in 22 career games against the Maple Leafs. But Andersen 5-0-0 with a 1.39 GAA in five career games against the Bruins.

Make that 6-0-0.

Here’s what we learned against the going-home-happy Leafs, one team the Bruins are mandated to finish ahead of in the Eastern Conference at the 82-game mark.

Early B’s barrage goes for naught; first period all Boston

Seven and a half minutes in, Brad Marchand came within a quarter stride of a penalty shot when he was hauled down on a partial breakaway. Boston spent the better part of the man-advantage in the Leafs’ zone, putting four quality chances on Andersen. After giving up two early goals Thursday against the lowly Avs, the B’s held the Leafs the better part of 18 minutes without a shot on Rask in the 11-2 final tally. It matched the Bruins’ best shots-against period this season.

Those second-period woes

Auston Mathews showed his first-pick stock in the June Entry Draft when he put a 15-foot bullet past an unflinching Rask at 1:44. It was just the Leafs’ fifth shot on goal.

“The frustration level happened when they scored that first goal,” Claude Julien said. “When it was zero-zero we were still in it.”

At 15:14, Jake Gardiner sent a limp shot toward Rask that Zach Hymen redirected for the 2-0 lead.

An Andersen decision to play the puck behind his net in the waning minutes proved costly when Brad Marchand maneuvered the puck into the crease for a dribbler past Andersen to cut the deficit in half at 18:39. It was Marchand’s eighth with David Backes assisting.

That third-period fact

The Bruins were 1-9-2 this season when trailing into the final period; the Leafs at 9-1-4.

Rask kept the game at 2-1 when he made two big saves early with Toronto on its first power play of the game; Zdeno Chara in the box at 3:07. But Marchand’s two minutes for tripping at 7:46 gave the talented Leafs another shot at insurance.

And it paid dividends – after Dominic Moore (“7th Player Award”) put it on Austin Czarnik’s stick at Andersen’s crease shorthanded – when van Riemsdyk tipped a Hunwick shot past Rask at 9:52 for a 3-1 lead as the penalty expired.

“I was in tight,” Czarnik said about a major lost opportunity to tie the game, “and was trying to figure it out quick and it just didn’t work.”

Connor Brown bagged the open-netter at 18:27 for the 4-1 final to push Andersen to his 6-0-0 mark against the Bruins.

“We feel we’ve been getting better,” Babcock said postgame about his young and talented team.

Opposite feeling for Bruins with frustrations mounting

“Every line is getting scoring chances, but nobody is finishing,” Julien said. “We could change lines to please everybody – doesn’t mean the puck is going to go in the net.

“It really isn’t about lines. If it was I wouldn’t hesitate to make changes. When you look at the players that [aren’t scoring goals], Bergy I think he has four or five goals, he had 30-something last year. Marchand had 37 goals. It’s got to be spread out, but at the same time I don’t care who scores them we just have to score.”

“Bottom line is having confidence,” Bergeron, with but four goals and four assists in 29 games, added. “You know, we’re here for a reason; we know we have to get some results and find ways.”

Montreal Monday

The Canadiens demolished the Avalanche Saturday night, 10-1. The Bruins next game there Monday night.

“Our scoring is not there,” Julien said, “and if you don’t score goals you don’t win hockey games and because of that we criticize everything else in our game – but our game isn’t that bad.”

It needs to be a whole lot better in 48 hours.

Best to “Tos” for his new gig in Vegas

A 10-year veteran of the Bruins’ media staff, Eric Tosi, made the rounds

Saturday night to accept congrats and dish out final thanks to the scribes after news of his promotion was announced. “Tos,” a true-blue Black-and-Gold good guy, served the team and press corps with utmost respect and professionalism as Director of Communications and Content. With the rumor mill buzzing after NBCSN’s Pierre McGuire broke the news during the Bruins-Capitals telecast on Wednesday night, a press release two days later made it official that Tosi, a Beverly, Mass. native and Holy Cross alum, was named VP of Communications and Content for the NHL’s newest franchise, the (Las) Vegas Golden Knights. Saturday night was his last game on Causeway Street – until the Golden Knights come town next season. He begins his duties December 19.

“Before we start here guys,” Julien said to begin his postgame press conference, “I just want to take a minute to thank Eric Tosi who’s worked with me for 10 years – since the first day I got here. As probably most of you guys know he’s moving on and I want to wish him the best of luck but thank him for all those years spent with me and certainly has become a good friend and hopefully we’ll see him down the road.”