First Period
Leafs are playing 11/7 with all their healthy defenders on the ice and none of Reaves, McMann or Steeves.
Tyler Bertuzzi gets the first of a faceoff win, where the Penguins just let him waltz into the net-front.
TYLER BERTUZZI 🚨
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
Rebound goal, Leafs have the lead pic.twitter.com/B8ltRykixg
1-0 Leafs
And just like that, like it so often is, the Penguins get an easy goal to tie it up.
Jake Guentzel ties it 28 seconds later
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
he's all one with an empty cage pic.twitter.com/bmC4GONJ2X
Tie Game
Defensive chaos from the Leafs, partly because Rielly stumbles getting back.
It is tradition that the Leafs give one up when the get one through defensive miscues. It's tradition that the Penguins give up a goal when the game is tied basically through dumb luck.
Jarnkrok shoots for the rebound and Knies buries it pic.twitter.com/i4Ho1TXlJC
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
Matt Knies makes it 2-1 Leafs.
John Ludvig hits Nick Robertson a little high, a little late, and sits down for two minutes. It looked like a "I must finish my check" robot move.
Leafs to the power play for this hit on Roberston pic.twitter.com/jgWn3dfGud
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
Mitch Marner plays a puck to no one on the power play and aids a rush against. Total braindead pass.
Keefe on Marner: "Not executing at the level you'd expect ... At times he's had it. After being challenged after the 2nd last night that line & Mitch in particular, had a better 3rd, showed some positive signs but no doubt Mitch hasn't found his groove"https://t.co/rOYRn87J6Z
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 25, 2023
Toronto takes a penalty right after the power play ends when Calle Järnkrok high sticks Sidney Crosby. Much ado is made about the Penguins and their passing on the power play just in time for them to get setup and pass just fine.
Thoughts
Very vigorous back-and-forth games for two teams who played road games yesterday.
Dead even, "defence, what's that?" from both teams.

Second Period
Jarry with a great save on Knies to stop what looked like a sure goal.
Guentzel was allowed to go to the backdoor again, but he missed on the tap in.
Mark Giordano takes a defensive penalty, and it's time to hear more about the Penguins and their power play. This one is awful – they're trying to dump it in for an entry.
And while the Penguins are awful, TJ Brodie takes the opportunity to flip the puck over the glass.
David Kämpf wins a faceoff and essentially kills the 5-on-3 portion.
The Penguins coach kills the rest by playing his grinders in some sort of symbolic gesture.
Bad Brodie is back in force tonight. He hands the puck to the Penguins, and Noel Acciari hooks it around Joe Woll like he's not even there.
Noel Acciari ties it pic.twitter.com/UJkMbEX8f5
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
Tie Game
Ryan Graves takes a penalty, and away we go with a Leafs power play.
Marner is definitely under some kind of curse tonight. He can't pass to anyone, he can't shoot it, he needs to play with the fourth line some. Keefe keeps using Järnkrok, let Marner put the game on tutorial mode for a few shifts.
The Leafs get pinned, and it's just so depressing it's Matthews, not Kämpf out there failing to get out.
Wow. Erik Karlsson rockets this one off the faceoff won by old man Jeff Carter.
one-timer from the blue line through traffic pic.twitter.com/8SbLxFbRHc
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
3-2 Penguins
Thoughts
Their bad power play for almost 4 minutes straight, then the Leafs with a good, but fruitless one killed the flow of this game.
Zzzzz. And then you wake up in time to see the Penguins take the lead.
Third Period
Marner actually plays an entire shift as the LD, and does fine. (Not on purpose, he just ended up in that position.)
Radim Zohorna takes a boarding call on William Lagesson, and we do not need one of the good defenders hurt.
Zahorna goes to the box for boarding on Lagesson pic.twitter.com/IjBotvjfUn
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 26, 2023
Good PK from the Penguins, and Jarry makes a couple of good saves at the end.
The Leafs have come on hard enough in the third to make this game dead even in xG. Or else the Penguins are trying to sit on this lead and hatch out a win.
After a few minutes more, I think it's the Leafs pushing as hard as they can.
Keefe pulls Woll with almost three minutes to go.
Jarry with the game saving, er, save on William Nylander.
More Marner is cursed action, as he pops the puck straight up on a great setup.
The play gets broken up, and the Leafs never recover.
Penguins hatch the win.
Thoughts
Great game from Matt Knies and Joe Woll was all you can ask for.
See you Tuesday for the next game.
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