Patience and Shootouts

Pittsburgh's superstar centre, Sidney Crosby - and the defending-Stanley-Cup-champion Penguins team he captains.
And for as tough as the shootout has been on them, the Pens have presented at least as much of a challenge.

"I think both teams play a similar style," Leafs centre Nazem Kadri said of the Penguins Friday after the Buds assembled at their west-Toronto workout facility in lieu of a full practice. "It's just going to be who really plays better defensively with the most structure. I don't think the game plan is tomorrow to come out and have a shootout with the Pittsburgh Penguins and just trade chances, because I don't think that's going to work out in our favour. We've got to be patient, we've got to be defensively in sync, and just ready to score when we have the opportunities."
Patience was a theme among Leafs players and coaches Friday, and you can see why: despite playing for extended stretches in which they completely dominated play against the Arizona Coyotes at Air Canada Centre Thursday, Toronto lost their focus for brief spells and surrendered enough goals that - combined with stellar play from the opposing goalie - put them back into overtime and a shootout. The Buds' subsequent 3-2 shootout loss to the Yotes was the same result they registered two nights earlier at the ACC (only this time, it was a 2-0 blown lead to the San Jose Sharks), and when Toronto's players gathered to discuss their issues Friday, they all recognized nothing short of a 60-minute effort was going to be what ends their current three-game losing streak and puts them back on track.
"We really didn't give them anything other than when we handed it to them," added Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen, one of the team's best players of late. "I think that's the biggest lesson to take from this game: we were dominating pretty well, but we were giving up big chances when we got impatient, so we've got to be better at that.
"We're definitely a good team with the puck, and we've got to learn to minimize our gifts to the other teams. We get in trouble when we start giving the puck away and get impatient. I think we've got to learn to just stick with it and stay the course of our game plan."
"We've generated a lot of offence these last few games," added Leafs head coach Mike Babcock. "In saying that, (Andersen) stopped four breakaways last night. We had sustained pressure in the offensive zone lots of times, and then we'd get impatient and they'd get a chance. So to me, we've got to clean that up, just by being more patient and staying with it."
The shootout loss was Toronto's fifth of the season and left the Buds still searching for their first shootout win of the year, but they had more important matters to set their sights on Saturday: taking on Crosby and the Penguins, who have won all seven games they've played in December and beat the Leafs 4-1 in their most recent showdown Nov. 12. The Pens are firing on all cylinders, but Crosby in particular has been outstanding, with 21 goals and 33 points in 24 games. The 29-year-old is the consensus pick as the game's best all-around talent, and trying to limit his impact is a tough task, to say the least.
"He's just tenacious (and) pretty persistent," Kadri said of Crosby. "He's very strong down low, he's good on his edges, he can shake you off pretty well, so you have to jockey him a little bit and give him the respect he deserves. He's a great player, you've just got to be hard on him, and I plan to do so tomorrow."
"Obviously, he's an elite, elite player, and to be elite like he is and do it year in and year out, you have to have an elite drive train and passion for the game, and he has that," Babcock said of the Pens captain, who he's coached a number of times with Canada's national men's team. "I think he's really matured into a great spokesperson for the league, model citizen, does things right, treats people right. So that gives you the power to speak for the league and the players as well.
"He's done it for a long period of time now, and he might be at the highest level he's ever been. I know this year at the World Cup, that's the best I've ever seen him. He's a way better all-around player than he used to be, for sure. He's stronger and heavier, he's still at his peak, and he's smarter than he's ever been, because that just comes with experience. And he's playing on a really good team - they've got good depth right through. They might be the best team since the previous Cup teams he was on. And so I think that helps you as well."
To earn a victory against that type of player and that type of team, the Leafs will need to practice what they preached Friday and not attempt to keep up with the Penguins in a run-and-gun display of chance-trading. They've been improving their possession numbers - something that's obviously a positive - but they can't use their speed and savvy if it means serving up golden opportunities to Pittsburgh every now and then. The Pens have more than enough talent not named Crosby who can and will make the most of those chances.'
"We played well with the puck, (but) I think we've gotta learn to play better without the puck," Andersen said. "I think that's the biggest lesson to take from (Thursday's) game: we were dominating pretty well, but we were giving up big chances when we got impatient, so we've got to be better at that."