TORONTO -- The first period of the Penguins' 4-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena brought some of the best hockey they've shown through the season's first three games.
Everyone brought their A-game. All four lines. All three defense pairings. No exceptions. They had the puck on their sticks, and they spent a lot of the game in the Toronto end. And for the Maple Leafs' chances that did make it to the net, Joel Blomqvist was locked in.
"We had jump," Marcus Pettersson told me of that start. "I think we played smart. We were aggressive."
The Penguins only had one goal to show for that early effort -- a Kris Letang power-play blast -- and it proved to not be enough when the Maple Leafs started pushing back as the game progressed. But two lessons can be learned from this loss early in the season: Players can and must do more to take advantage of such starts ... and they really are capable of keeping up with some of the NHL's fastest teams.
They controlled possession in the first period, especially early, though they'd go into intermission trailing, 10-6, in shots. Part of that was because the Maple LEafs were doing a lot of blocking -- the Penguins had a 24-15 lead in shot attempts, but 13-12 lead in unblocked attempts. Regardless, the Penguins had a lot more opportunities to shoot the puck than they actually used.
"We had sustained offense, sustained pressure, sustained zone time," Mike Sullivan said of the start. "You know, I thought we could have put more pucks on the net than we did. We were looking for something better a lot, and sometimes the best plays are just putting it on the net. We got traffic there, we can create opportunities off of it.
The Maple Leafs have star power, and most are on the younger side. The Penguins, the league's third-oldest team at 29.7 years old -- didn't exactly look outmatched in the speed department. For all the "old and slow" talk from the outside, that hasn't been an issue to this point. Later on in the year might be a different story, but right now, it's not on the radar.
"Age isn't a factor in how slow or fast you are," Lars Eller said. "You're the players you are. There's no reason we couldn't have won tonight."
"It's pretty easy to run with that (old and slow narrative)," Matt Grzelcyk said. "But just being in training camp, these guys are so committed, they work really hard, and it's been so impressive to see. I think they have so much left in the tank, and they're so competitive, too. So that's not going away anytime soon."
Marcus Pettersson flat-out said he thinks "speed isn't an issue for this team," adding, "We've got to play a little bit tighter, so we're closer as a group. Right now, it's a little too open."
The Penguins made mistakes after the first intermission, and Toronto was also able to capitalize on fortuitous bounces. A bounce and a bad line change combined for a 3-on-0 that resulted in William Nylander scoring a tying goal in the second period. Two minutes later, Matthew Knies capitalized when a puck bounced off the end boards and right onto his stick when he was in the slot. Mitch Marner made it a 3-1 game early in the third with just a well-placed shot on a breakaway after beating Pettersson in a battle along the boards. Rickard Rakell's wrist shot off an Evgeni Malkin feed later in the period gave the Penguins hope of a comeback before it was dashed by an empty-netter.
The Penguins didn't exactly slow down, but the Maple Leafs were able to carry momentum in their favor by being so opportunistic.
"What changed is they got a lucky break in the neutral zone," Eller said, referring to the Nylander goal. "I don't know if it was bad ice, or whatever, but the puck jumps over our stick and it's a bad break. We didn't capitalize on our chances after that."
It was a tough loss, and a frustrating one given the good early start. The frustration was evident in the locker room over the squandered early chances, even it was only the third game. But there were positives to take away, too, notably a functioning power play, another strong showing from Blomqvist with 29 saves, and especially the way they just plain old kept up.
Maybe it'll serve us a lesson about keeping up that keeping up through all three periods.
