Penguins dominated by Maple Leafs in 4-0 shutout
TORONTO – Having largely embarrassed the Toronto Maple Leafs 48 hours earlier, the Penguins were expecting a far stiffer challenge in the second portion of a home-and-home series on Thursday.
And sure enough, that was the case. The Maple Leafs offered a much more spirited attack.
But few expected the Penguins to present a contrasting effort as well.
Thanks in part to a languid performance in far too many areas, the Penguins were shut out, 4-0, in the rematch at Scotiabank Arena.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan offered few words about his team’s performance. But the sparse syllables he did communicate spoke volumes.
“We didn’t deserve to win tonight,” Sullivan fumed. “They played better than us. They outplayed us. They got what they deserved and so did we.”
One area where the Maple Leafs dominated was the faceoff circle. Overall, they controlled draws, 33-20 (62 percent). Three of their goals came off of three decisive faceoffs wins in the Penguins’ zone.
While being on the wrong side of those faceoffs was clearly disappointing, what appeared to aggravate the Penguins more was how they defended following those lost draws.
“You obviously have to win the draw and give yourself a chance,” said forward Sidney Crosby, who was 9 for 21 (43 percent) in faceoffs. “But if you lose it, it’s not a guaranteed goal either. So we’ve got to find a way to win more draws. If we do lose them, try to find a way to defend it. Defending the draw is always the best way to go about it.”
The Maple Leafs, who lost 5-2 in PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday, struck first on Thursday 7:45 into the second period. After Maple Leafs forward John Tavares beat Crosby on a faceoff in the Penguins’ right circle, defenseman Jake Muzzin, a former Penguins prospect, teed up a slapper, blasting it off the far post and into the cage, beating goaltender Matt Murray’s glove for his fifth goal of the season.
It became a 2-0 game at 10:01 of the second with a five-on-three power-play goal. After Tavares won another faceoff in the right circle, this time getting the best of Penguins forward Teddy Blueger, Maple Leafs forward William Nylander gripped and ripped a wrister through Murray’s five hole for his 27th goal. Matthews and Nylander netted assists.
“We just didn’t compete hard enough off the (faceoff losses),” Sullivan said. “We didn’t defend hard enough. We didn’t defend the net-front nearly as hard as we need to.”
A breakaway by forward Kasperi Kapanen, a former Penguins’ first-round pick in 2014, put the Maple Leafs up, 3-0, at 13:04 of the second. After blowing past out-of-place Penguins defenseman Jusso Riikola, Kapanen blew a wrister from the slot past Murray’s blocker for his 12th goal.
They secured victory 3:56 into the third with another score off an offensive zone faceoff win. This time, forward Evgeni Malkin, returning to the lineup after missing Tuesday’s game due to illness, lost a draw to forward Auston Matthews in the left circle. That led to forward Zach Hyman collecting his 19th goal on a goalmouth scramble.
“Teams like that, with good offenses, we’re going to see a lot of that down the stretch,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “We’ve got to know how to play a right way in order to win these games.
As if the lopsided loss wasn’t discouraging enough, the Penguins saw forward Dominik Kahun leave the game at 14:11 of the third after blocking a shot with his left leg. There was no update on this status.
Murray made 26 saves in a lopsided defeat the Penguins have rarely experienced in recent months.
“We definitely have to learn from it,” Crosby said. “There’s areas of our game that we can always improve on. …. Zone time and possession are definitely something we can be better in.”
Follow the Penguins all season long.
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Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Riikola, not Kris Letang, was the defenseman caught out of position on Kapenen’s breakaway goal.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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