Toronto Star Referrer

Struggling Leafs no match for injury-riddled Penguins,

KEVIN MCGRAN SPORTS REPORTER

PITTSBURGH—The mood within the Maple Leafs is not good.

It’s far from good after a disinterested squad lost to an injury-riddled Pittsburgh Penguins lineup in embarrassing fashion, 7-1 at PPG Paints Arena.

“The mood ain’t great,” said defenceman Jake Muzzin. “When you lose like that is not a good mood. But it’s early in the season. It’s a test for us. And let’s see how we respond.

“You learn from it. You understand it. It’s very hard to win in this league and we’re going to have to work a lot harder to win.”

The Leafs continue to have trouble scoring. Coach Sheldon Keefe admitted he was down on the top power-play unit.

He had also been combative with the media after

Friday’s loss when — fairly — asked about a player whose ice time had dwindled, only to be told it wasn’t an “appropriate” question.

Their starts have been awful. They again gave up the first goal Saturday night, for the fifth time in six games. They were playing a style reminiscent of the one that got Mike Babcock fired two years ago. Two quick Pittsburgh goals to break a tie in the second period and this game went from bad to worse.

“There’s a lot of things not to be happy about from that point on,” said Keefe. “But a tough game to assess in a lot of ways, because I thought we were going pretty well there for a good chunk of time. And then two pucks are in our net in a hurry. The game really changed from there.

“I didn’t like how we managed it from that point on. It’s tough playing from behind. We’ve been doing it too much lately and this one got away on us.”

Collars seemed to be tightening. Keefe was looking for answers and not finding

any, so perhaps calling questions inappropriate was a means to deflect an answer, kick it down the road for a game or two and hope something changes.

“It takes time to establish your game,” Keefe said.

The Leafs were facing a team without four key players — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter and Kris Letang — to open a three-game road trip through the United States.

“They’ve had some injury problems and it just (speaks to) what they’ve built here, to be able to kind of withstand those injuries for moment in time and be able to still pile together wins. And they’ve just got a winning culture about them,” said Leafs winger Alex Kerfoot.

That’s where the Leafs want to get to. The Penguins score the kind of goals the Leafs have talked about but can’t get: greasy ones, lucky ones, from getting pucks to dangerous places.

The game’s first goal went off Drew O’Connor’s pants. Pittsburgh’s second goal came when Mike Matheson blew by Jake Muzzin for a wraparound. The third by Jason Zucker deflected off Timothy Liljegren’s stick. And their fourth, another by O’Connor, went in off Muzzin’s stick blade.

Goals that came after that were just injury added to insult, especially since ex-Leaf Brian Boyle and Evan Rodrigues — briefly Leaf property in a 2020 summertime trade — were among the later goal scorers. Jason Spezza scored for Toronto.

It’s clear the Leafs are not playing to the identity they want to have. They’ve been good at possessing the puck, but more on the perimeter. They want to scare the opposition.

They frighten only their fans.

“The sooner that we can get to playing at full speed and playing as close to a perfect game as we can, the better,” said Kerfoot. “But it does usually take some time.”

The Leafs’ issues start right at the top of the lineup. No goals or assists from Auston Matthews, and no goals and just one assist from Mitch Marner. And it’s not like the rest of the core forwards were pouring it on.

“I don’t sense frustration necessarily, but they want to produce,” said Keefe. “That’s what their role on the team is: to produce and be difference-makers.” Little has worked. Keefe called a timeout after Pittsburgh scored two quick ones early in the second to open a 3-1 lead. It didn’t change the Leafs’ fate. They trailed 5-1 by the end of the period.

The idea of playing Michael Hutchinson in goal for the first of back-to-back games also backfired. He was the weak link in Friday’s loss to San Jose. That left Jack Campbell to play against a rested Penguins team. Hutchinson was back in net to start the third period, allowing a goal on Pittsburgh’s first two shots of the period.

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2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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