FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- No shots on goal for Mitch Marner. No goals for Auston Matthews.
Four games into the Eastern Conference Second Round between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers, there are cracks in a Maple Leafs offense that looked like it was unstoppable during the first three games of the series.
Matthews has three assists but no goals through four games. Marner has five shots on goal but only one since Game 1 and none in the past two games, both losses.
The Maple Leafs headed back to Toronto on Monday tied 2-2 in a best-of-7 series they once led 2-0, with Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN).
The Panthers have grown stronger, more like the team that won the Stanley Cup last season, while a Maple Leafs offense that scored 13 times in the first three games turned silent in Game 4, a 2-0 loss.
Toronto coach Craig Berube was sanguine about what the team has been getting from Matthews, especially considering that he might be playing through an injury, but he was less so about Marner.
"Sometimes your top guys, they're looking to get too good of a chance sometimes instead of just putting the puck on net," he said Monday. "I think there's times where we could put more pucks on net at angles, bad angles, just firing it in there with people going to the net. You never know, it goes off somebody, rebounds or anything like that.
"I think Mitch could just be a little bit more direct in that area. He has the puck a lot, we know that, and he's got to look to put more pucks to the net. I get what he's trying to do, he wants to upgrade his chance, upgrade the chance. He's a passer first, we know that, but we need him to shoot pucks too. So yeah, I agree with you on that. Two games without a shot, he's got to shoot the puck."
The sole shot that Marner has had in the past three games resulted in a goal, the game-winner in Game 2 at 5:50 of the third period, breaking a 3-3 tie to give the Maple Leafs a 4-3 victory and a 2-0 series lead.
It was a shot where Marner didn't think, didn't pause, didn't look to "upgrade his chance."
He simply received the puck as it was coming up the wall along the boards, and shot.
Matthews is a tougher case. The forward skipped the Maple Leafs morning skate Sunday ahead of Game 4 and seems to be dealing with a physical issue, perhaps relating to the upper-body injury that has plagued him much of the season. His 33 goals during the regular season were the fewest of his NHL career.
Berube, though, believes that goals are not the only way Matthews can impact the series.
"He's got to keep playing," Berube said. "I get it, but he does a lot of other things in the game that really dictate things and does a great job with a lot of other areas of the game. He's just got to keep focusing on that. I mean, he's going to get his looks and just stick with what he's doing and don't get too frustrated with anything because it's not just about scoring goals. He's got a lot of other stuff he does really extremely well for us.
"Big goal's coming. That's the way you've got to think about it. Who knows when it's going to happen, but just focus on playing the game and he's doing a good job. I get it. The puck's not going in the net for him. But again, it's not all about scoring."
It's a message Berube tries to reinforce with his captain.
"Yeah, 100 percent," he said. "He's out there killing penalties. He's going against top lines. He's checking. He's working. He's competing. A lot of good stuff. Yeah, we'd like him to score and so would he. It's not easy to score in the playoffs. I'm not overly worried about it."
For the first three games of the series, none of this mattered quite so much. The Maple Leafs were getting goals from William Nylander, from Morgan Rielly, from Matthew Knies and John Tavares.
But with one shutout, the cracks are more visible. Not that any of this is unexpected.
"I think that the group understands it's going to be a tough series," Berube said. "We knew that going in. It's going to be a long series. We lose two [in Florida] here, but we lost two against Ottawa in a row and came out in Game 6 and got it done."
That's the plan now. They will take the two-day break and reset. They will hope that their stars can find their game, can get it back, can be what they usually are.
As Berube said, when contemplating an alteration to his lineup, "I've liked the way our team's played. I really have. I don't think there's a whole lot to change."
