Maple Leafs dealt yet one more painful lesson on what it means to be elite

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TORONTO — Head coach Sheldon Keefe spelled it out as clearly as he might. He put the formulation up in lights.

“You want to be an elite team? You need to be elite in managing games,” Keefe had stated Tuesday after a couple of key lapses in judgement turned a comeback win in opposition to Vegas into an extra time loss. “You’ve got to close that game out.”

Given an opportunity at a do-over on Friday night time, the Maple Leafs discovered themselves on the incorrect finish of yet one more painful lesson in what meaning.

“I thought it was a clinic by the Pittsburgh Penguins in terms of how they defended,” Keefe stated Friday after these Penguins left Scotiabank Arena with a 4-2 win over his Maple Leafs. “They made it hard — we were on the wall a lot, and we couldn’t find our way through that. That’s the difference in the game.”

If the bench boss wanted a clearer blueprint to point out his younger leaders after watching them let their earlier tilt slip away, the follow-up effort ought to function a worthy companion lesson.

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Through 40 minutes of what wound up a high-flying back-and-forth between two golf equipment not brief on dynamic offensive expertise, Toronto appeared proper the place they wanted to be. With a cadre of hockey legends watching on — the night starting with a centre-ice ceremony for the Hall of Fame’s incoming class — one of many future Hall inductees in black and yellow was threatening to take the night time over, Evgeni Malkin wiring residence an early tying objective and later facilitating a go-ahead tally courtesy of a spinning backhand dish to a wide-open Jason Zucker.

But the Maple Leafs had been holding sturdy. After knocking on the door with probability after probability — essentially the most promising of them a sharp-angle shot wired by way of the crease and off the far submit — William Nylander burst by way of with a press release man-advantage one-timer to knot issues up late within the second interval. Toronto was getting its probabilities, pushing Pittsburgh again, gearing up for a knockout punch.

Then Brock McGinn walked in and beat Erik Kallgren with a straight shot two minutes into the ultimate interval — the primary Penguins objective the netminder had any actual probability of stopping. At this level, Pittsburgh turned their consideration to the kind of lockdown defensive effort Keefe’s been ready to see from his personal group.

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After outshooting Pittsburgh 26-15 by way of the opening two intervals, the Maple Leafs had been held to only 4 photographs by way of the third, a blanket thrown over their each try at one other tying objective, earlier than the Pens tossed in an empty-netter for good measure.

Clinical.

But even earlier than that instructional closing body, there have been earlier hints the Maple Leafs hadn’t discovered their lesson, Keefe stated post-game.

“I thought some of the first period was okay, not nearly as good as we would expect. [But] we’re up 1-0. We’re in a good spot there — we get a good goal by (Zach) Aston-Reese, gives us a lead. And then I was really disappointed in how we closed out that period,” the coach stated. “We give them one back.”

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Twice the Penguins had been capable of seize maintain of the sport after a robust push from the Leafs. And Toronto had its probabilities to tug the night time again the opposite manner, too. In the top, the distinction was one membership’s potential to close down the trade-off when it mattered most, to shift their mindset from highlight-reel offence to game-winning defence.

Now, one membership heads residence with the early makings of a win streak, the opposite with a newly rising pile of L’s.

“To me, it goes back to just how connected we can be, and how we can manage the puck, and how we can get on top of teams,” Keefe stated of why his membership hasn’t but discovered its rhythm. “That’s actually what we have to do a greater job of. You know, sequences are ending too shortly — we’re at our greatest once we get second, third, fourth alternatives to play on offence. We haven’t had sufficient of these as a workforce. Just managing the puck must be higher.

“That was the biggest factor in the game here today. We didn’t manage it well enough.”