Pittsburgh's Win Streak Ends at Four in Toronto

WHAT HAPPENED
Pittsburgh's overall four-game win streak and six-game road win streak ended with their 4-1 loss to Toronto on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
Evgeni Malkin scored the lone goal for Pittsburgh, while Tristan Jarry made 26 saves. Down at the other end, Jack Campbell stopped 45 shots while Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, David Kampf and Michael Bunting all scored for the Maple Leafs.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT
The Penguins had outscored the Maple Leafs 9-1 in each of their first two meetings - both victories - because they brought a collective effort on both sides of the puck. That same type of effort wasn't present tonight, and neither was the execution.
"We obviously didn't have our best," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "We just weren't good enough tonight. I don't think we were hard enough to play against."
While the Penguins did manage to generate a ton of shots, they also gave up plenty of chances, beginning with a breakaway just 21 seconds in that Auston Matthews converted. And while Jarry did his best to keep his teammates in it, there's only so much the netminder could do when a skilled group like Toronto, who has a ton of quick-strike capability and one of the best transition games in the league, keeps getting looks.
"We're a professional group and we should be able to rebound from that early goal. But we just weren't as sharp as we needed to be," defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. "They're a real dangerous team and we gave them quality looks. They're going to punish you when you do that. It wasn't our best."
The Penguins did have plenty of opportunities to try and spark some momentum in their favor on their power play, which has been so good since the calendar flipped. The Penguins have 15 power-play goals in their past 13 games, and going back even further, only Toronto has a better success rate on the man-advantage than Pittsburgh in 2022.
But unfortunately, the power play had an off night, going 0-for-5 on the evening. "Our power play hurt us," captain Sidney Crosby said. "Gave up a goal, didn't get any. It's a big swing there."
The Penguins drew four penalties in the first two periods, including two back-to-back while trailing 2-0 in the middle frame as Mitch Marner went to the box less than a minute after his teammate Travis Dermott was released.
The Penguins couldn't convert either of those, and headed to their fourth chance with 2:41 left. And not only did they fail to score - Pittsburgh gave up a shorthanded goal. The Leafs ended up winning the special teams battle handily, as they scored a power-play tally of their own in addition to their PK prowess.
"They're aggressive, but I wouldn't say that they do anything different than what we've seen," Crosby said. "I think it just comes down to execution. A couple of times on the entries we struggled. When we got it in and got some zone time, maybe forced a play or two. But we just couldn't make that next pass to break pressure. Against a team that pressures, they're going to try to force mistakes, and they did a good job of that. But we got to be better as far as making plays."
The first-place Penguins have two days off before hosting the second-place Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon at 1 PM, and they know a much better collective effort will be required against another quality opponent.
"We've got an opportunity on Sunday to hit the reset button and go back to playing the hockey we know we're capable of," Sullivan said.
OTHER THOUGHTS, MUSINGS AND OBSERVATIONS
TOP LINE MATCHUP
The Penguins knew they would have their hands full with Toronto's top line of the rookie Bunting, Matthews and Mitch Marner. Evan Rodrigues said the key would be making them play defense, but the Penguins weren't able to do that consistently enough, as the trio combined for five points.
With a goal and an assist, Matthews extended his point streak to nine games, which is the NHL's longest active. He's piled up an eye-popping eight goals and 18 points over that span and now has 33 tallies on the season, which is tied for the league lead. Bunting also scored, while Marner collected two helpers.
Crosby and Jake Guentzel entered tonight right behind Matthews with seven-game point streaks, which both ended in the contest. The coaching staff tweaked the second and third lines to try and generate more offense, putting Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen on Malkin's wings and moving Evan Rodrigues back to center, flanked by Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen (the first and fourth lines stayed the same).
The Malkin line did a pretty good job of providing that, coming up with the tally along with some other scoring chances. However, Pettersson said as a group, they can still do a better job when it comes to secondary scoring.
"It's tough when you got one or two lines pulling the weight," Pettersson said. "Even though they're really good players, they can't pull you every night. I think when we're at our best, we get contributions from everybody. I think we got to find a way to bring that more consistently."