‘Unacceptable’: No celebrating Maple Leafs’ wild comeback over Penguins

In his 17 months as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, this was the most frustrated and bewildered Craig Berube has been after a victory.

So what if he gave it to players in the second intermission and loaded up one line — Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Matthew Knies — that scored thrice in a stunning span of 3:24? 

Who cares if goaltender Anthony Stolarz smeared lipstick on a 40-minute pig, or the effort eventually kicked in and the Maple Leafs’ four-goal third period salvaged a 4-3 victory on Monday and linked consecutive wins over Pennsylvania?

Berube was still scratching his head over the fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins — wait, aren’t they supposed to be tanking? — stormed into Toronto’s house and all but ran the Maple Leafs off their own rink in the first two periods.

“I have no clue,” said Berube, as honest as he was puzzled. “I don’t have an answer for that right now.”

By the time the second buzzer sounded, the Penguins had outshot the Leafs 25-8, outscored them 3-0. They won the puck battles and the footraces. They passed crisply and provided support. They drove the net and generated deadly power-play looks. They outworked and outclassed.

Most damning: They tried harder.

As the event took on a Harlem Globetrotters–versus–Washington Generals feel, the Leafs got hit with a Bronx cheer when William Nylander launched a puck from distance that ended a nearly 10-minute shot drought.

A mocking “Let’s go, Blue Jays!” chant arose, only to be drowned out by game ops’ blasting of Nirvana at full volume. If the embarrassment can’t be stopped, maybe it can be drowned out.

Hello, hello, hello, how low?

“What upsets me is, we come out in the second period down 2-0. You think we’re gonna make a push, and we didn’t. They controlled the whole period,” Berube said.

“They got the puck and did whatever they wanted with it. We didn’t check anybody. We didn’t knock anybody off the puck. And when we did get it, we gave him back to ’em, and they just kept coming back down our throats. It’s not good enough.”

The good news is twofold.

1. After getting an earful in the second intermission — “‘Chief’ came in and just said a few things. You guys can use your imagination for that,” Stolarz said, “and everyone else kind of just echoed” — the Leafs dug in for Period 3, committed to shot-blocking after stealing a lead, and improved their record to 7-5-1, which is good enough in the Mid-lantic.

2. Toronto’s leaders didn’t attempt to spin their comeback as some grand evidence of resilience. They focused on the lack of competitiveness that dug the hole to begin with.

“Played terrible for two periods. It’s unacceptable. There’s nothing more to say,” Nylander said, quietly. “Our compete level was not there. Losing every battle. Losing every puck. So, that’s what it comes down to.”

Matthews, quiet for 40 and stellar for 20, concurred: “Just everything from effort to the energy, the execution just wasn’t good enough in the first two periods. And, I mean, it showed the scoreboard, showed in the shots, showed in the chances, showed in everything.” 

Stolarz added: “We’re big boys. We’ve been around long enough, and we know that that’s not our game.”

Trouble is, through 13 uneven games now, this kinda is the Maple Leafs game: Compete for impressive, desperate stretches. Find some timely saves from the (too?) busy Stolarz and timely goals from the game-breakers. Stay in the mix.

But also look disengaged for concerning stretches. The type of prolonged lapses that get glossed over in early November but will give you no chance of surviving a best-of-seven in April.

The difference between the Jekyll Leafs and the Hyde Leafs? 

“I mean, just energy and passion, emotion,” said Matthews, a plus-3 with two points, four blocks, and a player-of-the-game belt.

“It was great to come back and get the two points and have a great third period. I think the focus should more be so on the first two periods and why we lacked all those different things that got us down in the game and in the first place. So, something that we’ll figure out.”

Still, Berube expected a prideful push to come much earlier.

“You have to understand that you’re going to get down in this league at times,” Berube said. “And it’s the response that’s needed to get back in the game. Now, we got that response in third. I don’t understand why we never got it right away in the second.

“That’s the frustrating part. And that’s all mental for me. It’s all mental for me. It’s got to be better. That’s the bottom line.”