Maple Leafs offence labours in uninspiring home loss to Kraken
John Tavares scores lone Toronto goal in 5-1 defeat
John Tavares wants to see his Toronto Maple Leafs focus more on the details.
Vince Dunn scored the eventual winner and added two assists to lead the Seattle Kraken past the Maple Leafs 5-1 after Toronto's second flat performance in three days. Tavares said the Maple Leafs didn't respond well to adversity Thursday.
"We have to do a better job, obviously, of executing those details, especially in certain moments of the game to continue to give us a chance and be right there," said Tavares. "Especially when we did a lot of good things in the first half."
The Maple Leafs (23-9-7) also looked deflated during Tuesday's 6-5 shootout loss to the undermanned St. Louis Blues, who have captain Ryan O'Reilly, star forward Vladimir Tarasenko and stalwart defenceman Torey Krug on the injured reserve.
Mitch Marner, who assisted on Tavares's goal for his 44th point of the season, had a simple suggestion for how Toronto could bounce back from the disappointing losses.
"Just relax. I mean, we're a great team. We know that," he said, noting that the Maple Leafs host Detroit on Saturday. "It's a divisional rival that we beat in their building last so we've got to come hungry, pushing them."
WATCH | Dunn's 3-point night leads Kraken to road win over Maple Leafs:
Jared McCann had a goal and an assist as Seattle (21-12-4) won its third straight. Eeli Tolvanen opened the scoring on the power play, with Matty Beniers and Alex Wennberg also chipping in. Martin Jones stopped 26 shots for the win.
"We shot a lot of pucks tonight from all sorts of angles," said Dunn. "That's really important to keep the goalie honest and for us to establish a forecheck."
Tolvanen wired a slap shot from the point past Murray midway through the first with the puck possibly nicking Toronto defenceman Mark Giordano.
Just 14 seconds later, Dunn's wrist shot handcuffed Murray to give the Kraken another one-goal lead.
"For the most part, we were pretty good in the first period, but they definitely gave it to us," said Dunn. "I think we were just getting our legs into it a little bit."
A streaking McCann made it 3-1 shortly afterward, taking a lead pass from Jaden Schwartz for a clean breakaway. He snapped a shot past Murray for his team-leading 18th goal of the season.
Beniers piled on as the second period wound down, pivoting sharply with the puck on his stick to whip a shot past Murray.
It took less than three minutes of play in the third for the Kraken to add to their lead. Wennberg completed his partial breakaway with the puck on his backhand and slid it past Murray.
Like McCann, Dunn and Beniers's goals, it came at even strength, adding to Seattle's league-leading 5-on-5 scoring rate.
