Musings: Penguins Don't Put Together Full 60 in Toronto

Playing a full 60 minutes is one of the biggest cliches in hockey for a reason. The Penguins put together a strong 40 minutes on Monday in Toronto, with their second period arguably their best of the season.

But the Maple Leafs stormed back in the third, turning a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead. That stood as the final score for the last game of a four-game, eight-day road trip for Pittsburgh.

“We played two good periods, and then we got a little flat in the third and obviously they kept coming, and they stepped up their game,” Erik Karlsson said. “We couldn’t find a way to maintain the level that we had for the first 40. I think we just started playing it probably a little bit too safe, and that’s usually a sign when you don't feel your best, and maybe we ran out of gas a little bit.”

Karlsson opened the scoring with his first of the season to go along with his 10 assists. That was followed by a pair of tallies from Ben Kindel. It’s the first multi-goal game by a teenager since Olli Maatta (2G) on March 6, 2014. Now with five on the season, Kindel is tied for the rookie scoring lead.

The first wasn’t pretty. Anthony Stolarz stopped a shot from Ville Koivunen, with the rebound popping high into the air. It was high-sticked by the Maple Leafs before deflecting off Kindel and in.

The second was gorgeous. It came on the power play, with Kindel seeing time on the first unit in the absence of Rickard Rakell, who’s recovering from hand surgery.

“Just the sense, his ability to read space, the ability to attack space, to know where the next play is – those are the types of things that I think we've seen from him on a pretty consistent basis,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse said. And they were on display tonight, with Kindel absolutely buzzing before converting.

However, the Leafs started the final frame strong, with three goals in the first 6:55 – one from captain Auston Matthews, and two from star winger William Nylander. Bobby McMann later got what stood as the winner on Tristan Jarry.

Here’s what Muse had to say after the contest.

How would you explain, from your standpoint, what happened in the third? We got away from it. We felt the first two periods are the way we want to be playing. It has to be a full 60, though. We got away from it there. I think it was a number of different factors. I think when they took momentum there, we weren't able to at least pause the momentum. It kept coming, and then we're back on our heels, and we can't play the game that way. I mean, I think the things that were working there in the first two periods, they're things that can be sustainable, but we got away from them and it can't happen.

What was the message when you used your timeout? At that point, it was just to settle things down. It was just to take a minute. I think when that happens quick, we were hoping to settle in, maybe keep things a little bit quieter. Just take a second, regroup. Didn't work.

When you said things are sustainable from the first couple of periods, what are you referring to? I just I thought we were playing north. We were moving pucks. I thought our puck support was good. I thought defensively, you go to that Winnipeg game and the number of odd-man rushes that we gave up, I didn't think we were seeing that. I thought we were defending. We had everybody pretty consistently stacking shifts together and we're limiting their chances. So, that's more in line with how we want to play. But it's got to be a full game in that. You can't have a situation like that. I thought we put ourselves in a really good position to go into the third period there. And that's a good hockey team. They got dangerous players. Everybody in the league has dangerous players. It was a combination of a lot of things there. We just got away from playing the type of game that we want to play.

What do you tell your players after a game like this? There's not a lot you're going to say right afterwards. We're going to look at it. We're going to learn from it. We don't have any choice right now, so that's what you have to do.

Might be difficult to find positives in a game like this, but when you look at the way Ben Kindel played tonight and the results that he had, how does it sort of make you feel about his development and where he's headed? I thought he played well, and we've seen that. Right now, obviously the emotions of a game like that – we'll go back on it and look at things that are both from the team standpoint and from the individual standpoint. He's been doing a good job. But I think for everybody right now, obviously tough pill to swallow.

Is there any update on Noel Acciari [who left in the first period with an upper-body injury]? No, no updates right now.