Senators open the scoring 41 seconds in and take control from there. “We just got away from what’s made us successful,” Tavares says.
The Maple Leafs finally looked like a team for which injuries were taking a toll.
A younger, faster and hungrier bunch of Ottawa Senators took the first Battle of Ontario game of the season, a 3-0 shutout of a Toronto team that showed little emotion and less cohesion.
“We got away from our game and clearly they had some good legs early,” Leafs alternate captain John Tavares said. “Our legs weren’t great and we didn’t manage the game very well. We just got away from what’s made us successful and we were just disjointed.
momentum throughout the night.”
Playing their fourth game in a row without captain Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) and their first without Max Pacioretty (lower-body injury), the Leafs looked like a team that lacked any chemistry. The Senators took the game to the Leafs all night, earning full marks for the win.
It was a puzzling turn of events for a team that had played so well recently.
“Not a good game for us, not much good to talk about overall,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We got outskated. They wanted it more than us.”
By the end of the night, the Scotiabank Centre crowd was booing their heroes, who had won three in a row without Matthews. But even when Berube put his remaining highest-paid players together — Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander — the Leafs couldn’t muster any offence.
“I switched the lines up trying to find something,” Berube said. “There wasn’t much.”
The defensive pairing of Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson seemed to play much of the game in the Leafs’ end as the entire team put together an uncharacteristically sloppy effort. The power play had its moments, but failed to connect for the first time in four games, going 0-for-4.
momentum throughout the night.”
Playing their fourth game in a row without captain Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) and their first without Max Pacioretty (lower-body injury), the Leafs looked like a team that lacked any chemistry. The Senators took the game to the Leafs all night, earning full marks for the win.
It was a puzzling turn of events for a team that had played so well recently.
“Not a good game for us, not much good to talk about overall,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We got outskated. They wanted it more than us.”
By the end of the night, the Scotiabank Centre crowd was booing their heroes, who had won three in a row without Matthews. But even when Berube put his remaining highest-paid players together — Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander — the Leafs couldn’t muster any offence.
“I switched the lines up trying to find something,” Berube said. “There wasn’t much.”
The defensive pairing of Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson seemed to play much of the game in the Leafs’ end as the entire team put together an uncharacteristically sloppy effort. The power play had its moments, but failed to connect for the first time in four games, going 0-for-4.