Leafs Rake Penguins, 4-1

“I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

So said Dorothy to her dog, Toto, after the twister deposited her house in Munchkinland.

In the wake of our dismal 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto last night, a rather apt metaphor for where we are at this stage of the season. Indeed, it feels like we crossed a rather significant line last night.

Among our 31 remaining games, 14 are against Metro Division rivals, including four against the rugged Rangers and three with high-flying Carolina. In all, we have 20 games slated against teams that presently occupy playoff spots, including tilts with twin Atlantic Division powers Tampa Bay and Florida and multiple clashes with Colorado and Boston.

No longer in Kansas, indeed.

I’m sorry to say our Penguins flunked their first test last night against a talented Toronto squad. We just flat out got beat by a better team. It wasn’t even close. Super sniper Auston Matthews set the tone, streaking in to beat Tristan Jarry on a breakaway 21 seconds in.

It was all downhill from there.  Our guys proceeded to yield an alarming number of odd-man breaks. Jarry kept us in the game for a while, but he, too, eventually wilted.

“We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said in a vast understatement while summing up his team’s porous play. “They’re a really dangerous team and we gave them quality looks. They’re going to punish you when you do that. It wasn’t our best.”

Sidney Crosby echoed the rangy defender’s sentiments. “We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to execute better,” said the Pens’ captain. “For whatever reason, we didn’t. Whether it was special teams or five-on-five, we just didn’t do a good enough job executing. It’s hard to win games like that.”

I concur. Frankly, the less written about this game, the better. The Pens need to learn their lessons and move on…fast.

Puckpourri

Given the outcome, the Pens were surprisingly dominant statistically. We outshot the Leafs, 46-29, and enjoyed a surprising edge in high-danger chances (19-7). Scoring chances were about even (32-29 in our favor).

Jack Campbell (45 saves) outdueled Jarry (.862 save percentage) to win the clash of All-Star goalies.

In addition to Matthews, Morgan Reilly, David Kampf and Michael Bunting scored for the Leafs. Reilly’s power-play marker came on a Bobby Orr-ish end-to-end rush. Evgeni Malkin scored for the Pens, his sixth of the season and third at even strength.

The rate of black-and-gold defensive breakdowns is both costly and alarming. Coach Mike Sullivan and his staff need to figure out what’s wrong with the team’s defensive structure (or lack of) and fix it…pronto.

Along those lines, I’ve noticed the Pens’ defense…Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin in particular…are switching sides quite a bit in the offensive zone, perhaps in an effort to place their shots in the middle of the ice. However, it’s forcing them to crisscross or play out of position in the defensive zone. Whatever the reason, our top tandem (minus-three last night) seems to be getting caught flatfooted. A lot.

Sullivan juggled the second and third lines, with a degree of success. Jeff Carter (an assist) and Danton Heinen joined Malkin on the second unit. They unleashed 15 shots on goal and registered a Corsi of 70.37. Evan Rodrigues centered for Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen. The anticipated magic between E-Rod and Kappy failed to materialize.

The surprisingly punchless power play was 0-for-5 and surrendered a short-handed goal to Kampf. Sid and Jake Guentzel had seven-game point streaks snapped.

Despite the loss, the Pens (31-12-8, 70 points) remain atop the Metro with a two-point lead over Carolina. The ‘Canes pay a visit to PPG Paints Arena in a showdown for first place Sunday afternoon.