LEAFS GAME 4 TAKEAWAYS: Still waiting for Auston Matthews to have an impact

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The Leafs went south and so did their series lead.

They come back tied against a team who flexed both its muscle and its playoff smarts. Toronto, which earned home ice advantage down the stretch in the regular season, needs it now, but also needs key individuals to step up.

Our takeaways on a 2-0 loss Sunday night in Sunrise:

AUSTON LOST IN SPACE

If Auston Matthews is not hampered by an upper body injury as some suspect, there must be a lot of nagging doubts going through his head.

Toronto’s captain is not scoring, not even shooting with purpose. And while that could have been overlooked the past couple of games as Florida has come back hard in the series, his extended playoff history is bound to be a topic the next couple of days.

Three goals the past 20 post-season games does not compute with his US$13.25-million salary. And three missed shots in Game 4 adds up now to more than 20, highest among all this year’s playoff performers.

Matthews continues to take a pass on morning skates, such as on Sunday, the only Leaf to skip it, lending to the injury narrative. Yet faceoffs continue to be his strength, he still hits and the Panthers only had one power play goal with him part of six penalty kill assignments. But the past two losses have cried out for a game breaker in blue and white.

“The chances have been there, I just have to do a better job bearing down on some,” Matthews told media in Florida when asked where his game is at now. “For the most part through the four games, we’ve been winning shifts, generating chances against tough matchups (a chess match that changes in Toronto’s favour in Game 5).

“But obviously you want to score, I want to score.”

Coach Craig Berube was quizzed on his team’s offence getting stymied by Florida after nine goals to start the series at home. The Core Four, or five counting Matthew Knies, stopped penetrating at 5-on-5 or power play and when they do, Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is there.

“I thought most guys were engaged,” Berube said. “There are guys who could do more for sure and we’ll need more out of them. We’ll figure that out.”

It starts with No, 34.

MISPLACED MOJO

With Florida reputed to be the NHL’s most feared vigilantes, especially at home, it was quite something to see the Leafs take Sunday’s first four penalties.

For the first two games, the Leafs mostly steered clear of the box and ignored the antagonistic tendencies of the Stanley Cup champions, who are well versed in dark arts. In Sunrise, however, the Leafs lost that discipline.

Berube couldn’t really carp to the officials about any of the four calls and the Leafs actually got lucky that Oliver Ekman-Larsson wasn’t given anything more than a minor for a blind hit that shook up Evan Rodrigues in the third period. They hope the league doesn’t see anything reviewable for suspension out of that scrum at the final buzzer after Max Domi rammed Aleksander Barkov to try and send a Game 5 message and received a five-minute boarding major.

Ekman-Larsson was already in the doghouse for clearing an unchallenged puck over the glass that ultimately led to Carter Verhaeghe’s opening – and winning – marker.

“We don’t need to take those, the hookings and interference,” Berube said. “We have to be smarter than that. But in the end, I liked our physicality and compete. Our guys played well. It’s a tough series, they’re a very good team. It’s a battle.”

SOUR POWER PLAY

Could it be the Leafs will go down in another playoff series because their power play blew a fuse?

The five-forward unit did manage to get the puck into the blue paint a couple of times but couldn’t whack it over the line. Otherwise, rushes are stalling at the Florida blueline and risky passes, at both ends of the ice, are being picked off. After going an impressive 5-for-9 to start the Ottawa series, it’s been a struggle.

Sam Reinhart and the Florida penalty killers are having a field day and high guy Leaf Mitch Marner has had to scramble back a couple of times to play the defensive hero. Not even putting the five forwards out for one entire power play on Sunday allowed them to find their rhythm.

It would be hard for Berube to reinvent the wheel on both units in what’s now a best-of-three series, though they do have an extra day for a practice. Berube can only preach so long about more directness to the net, but some people have to listen.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby