The Toronto Maple Leafs put on a lackluster performance Tuesday night in Columbus, quickly falling behind 3-0 in the first period en route to a 6-2 loss.
Winger Mitch Marner said after the game that it was their worst outing of the season.
“It wasn’t good from the start,” he said via NHL.com. We weren’t competitive enough during the match. They gave their best and we gave our worst. »
Columbus was outshot 38-28, the Jackets won 54% of faceoffs and the players seemed to have a lot more energy than the Maple Leafs, who had the better 5-3 over the Lightning. Tampa Bay the day before in Toronto.
“The neutral zone was the highway for them tonight. They crossed it easily,” commented Captain Auston Matthews.
“We just got beat up a little bit. It’s a busy week for us, we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. »
Matthews is right. The Leafs returned home for a game against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and will return to the road to face the Bruins in Boston on Saturday. This means that Toronto will play four games in six evenings, including two away.
Despite the busy schedule this week, head coach Craig Berube wasn’t happy with his players’ effort Tuesday, saying they made things too easy for the Blue Jackets, who are likely to struggle for the first overall pick in the upcoming draft.
“I didn’t feel like we skated well tonight,” Berube said. They passed us all evening. We didn’t win a lot of puck battles tonight, we didn’t defend very well and that’s the result. »
Furthermore, the Maple Leafs lost the services of Max Pacioretty in the third period due to a lower body injury and he did not return to the game.
Berube did not have an update on the attacker’s condition. More details should be known on Wednesday.
