After putting forth arguably their best effort of the season in Philadelphia on Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs, for 40 minutes, appeared like a team not interested in competition and not interested in playing the type of hockey it takes to win, as they trailed 3-0 and registered only eight shots through two periods on Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry.
After being chastised during the intermission by Craig Berube, Auston Matthews and William Nylander scored three times in the span of 3:24 to tie the game, and Toronto took the lead for good on Bobby McMann’s third goal of the season with 6:17 left.
“I didn’t think the first period was that bad. We made a mistake on the first goal, the second goal (was) a bounce, but what upsets me is, we come out in the second period down 2-0. You think we’re going to make a push, and we didn’t. And they controlled the whole period with the puck.” Berube said. “We just got back and played our game (in the third), the Willie (Nylander), (Auston) Matthews, and (Matthew) Knies line went out and did what they were capable of doing, and our goalie was good.”
Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves for his third straight victory, as Toronto pulled into a playoff spot with a 4-3 win at Scotiabank Arena, but after the game, the Leafs head coach seemed befuddled as to why his club did what they did and at a loss for what can be done.
“I have no clue, I don’t have an answer for that now.” Berube said. “It’s not good enough.”
For anyone who has observed this current edition of the Maple Leafs, the failure to perform at a certain level of competitiveness is an all-too-familiar theme. Forget 60 minutes, they won on Monday playing 20 minutes of good hockey. The Leafs have consistently gone into lengthy slumbers for long stretches and relied on their top-end offensive talent to erase significant deficits, but in spite of the fact that Toronto is currently tied for third in the NHL with 47 goals, they do not have as much of that top-end talent as they have in the past.
Toronto was bailed out by putting all their eggs in one basket, and at practice on Tuesday, the Knies – Matthews – Nylander line skated together, which would indicate that they will at least start together against the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday. Nick Robertson skated on the second line with John Tavares and McMann, while Matias Maccelli replaced rookie Easton Cowan on the third line with Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua. Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton were on a fourth-line unit with Max Domi playing on the wing.
Both Stolarz and defenseman Brandon Carlo, who blocked a shot late in the third period with Pittsburgh pressing for the tying goal, were not on the ice at Ford Performance Centre, but Berube said that it was for maintenance purposes and that both would play against the Mammoth.
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