Craig Berube sees sizzle and sloppiness in first Maple Leafs game

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Expect the unexpected in a pre-season NHL game.

But there were too many surprises for head coach Craig Berube in Sunday’s debut behind the Maple Leafs bench, a disjointed start to an eventual 6-5 overtime loss against an Ottawa Senators team that paled to Toronto’s veteran lineup.

Berube expected much more after three days of training camp to shake off rust, and said so in significantly less time than Sheldon Keefe used to analyze such puzzling games. Berube pinpointed areas of concern he thought he’d begun to address.

“We come out just slow, just didn’t move the puck quick enough,” he said. “That’s why we ended up with two shots in the first period (to Ottawa’s 15). We didn’t want to shoot, got too cute at times. It got better, but overall there are things we’ve got to clean up our directness.”

Other than see his vaunted offence in full flight delight during a three-minute, three-goal comeback in the third period, a dominant 6-on-5 to tie the game and the first 150 seconds of 3-on-3 overtime, the Leafs showed some bad summer hockey habits.

On the plus side was two goals in the third-frame surge from 35-year-old Max Pacioretty, a tip and a bullet five-hole wrister. That and an Auston Matthews’ power play goal gave the Leafs a brief one-goal lead.

Pacioretty is on a PTO contract, with a deal waiting if he can show he’s recovered from multiple Achilles tendon injuries. Sunday demonstrated his comeback is right on track as he enjoyed playing with fellow veteran John Tavares and eager rookie Nikita Grebenkin.

“I felt nervous out there, the most I’ve felt in a pre-season since I was 20-years-old,” Pacioretty said. “I found myself overcomplicating things. But John was always in the right spot. I’m happy, but I have a lot to improve on.”

His energy sapped at the end of the second period, Pacioretty found his legs and, in overtime, turned on the jets for a rush that nearly won it for the Leafs. But a turnover led to Carter Yakemchuk’s winner.

Chris Tanev had a pair of assists, an unexpected contribution after the stay-at-home defenceman had just 17 all of last season in Dallas and Calgary. It was a taste of what he could rack up as Morgan Rielly’s partner at 5-on-5 with the Leafs arsenal. But the East York native griped about being party to the defensive lapses.

“We didn’t play how we wanted, a bit of a sloppy game. We needed better breakouts, better defensive zone (coverage),” Tanev said. “That’s what we’ll focus on the next few games. I’m not worried about my offence.”

Tanev triggered the Leafs first goal, putting Mitch Marner in motion to set up Matthew Knies. But the Leafs then lost the puck at Ottawa’s line and never corrected the numerical disadvantage before Cole Reinhardt finally jammed it past Joseph Woll for his first of two goals.

Woll was under siege for 22 shots in his half-game stay in the nets, giving up a third goal to one-time Leaf Adam Gaudette, who was left open in the slot. Matt Murray arrived midway through the second period as scheduled. The Leafs gave up 34 shots on the evening before 14,531 in a less-than-sold-out Scotiabank Arena.

Berube felt thaat his top guns were trying to force too many pucks through the Sens, instead of giving it to the open man. He certainly wants to establish controlled aggression by his team as well, but instead got a first-minute high-sticking penalty by Knies. Woll stopped three shots on the kill, but then Toronto was a little lax fielding a dump-in and Grebenkin couldn’t close on Jan Jenik in the slot.

Assistant coach Lane Lambert, the new penalty-killing architect of a unit that finished in the bottom third of the league last season, had both old and new faces in Sunday’s mix. They were 3-for-3, leaning on Tanev, Calle Jarnkrok, the two-way duo of Matthews and Marner, rogue Ryan Reaves and farmhand Jacob Quillan.

No shock that Reaves was in the pre-season’s first fight, taking exception to a shove from behind by Donovan Sebrango. But the second scrap came out of nowhere — Russian rookie Grebenkin getting a couple of shots in on Gaudette, then raising his arms to pump the crowd. Berube, an enforcer in his playing days, fist-bumped the 22-year-old upon his return to the bench.

“I just loved to see that, the new heavy in town,” Reaves said. “Good to see kids getting involved like that, a full team thing. The Russians tend to be strong.”

Everyone wanted to see what the other new assistant, Marc Savard, had in store this night for the power play, which had to contemplate a long summer following a 1-for-21 slide against Boston in the playoffs. The wait for their first Ottawa minor was long enough, but the visitors were up to the challenge of keeping the returning No. 1 group of Matthews, Marner, Tavares, William Nylander and Rielly to the outside. Matthews had the only goal in three Leafs man-advantages, Marner hustling to keep the puck in and Tavares feeding him a nifty no-look pass through his legs.

Nylander finished off the last-minute tying marker with Pacioretty drawing an assist.

Berube cautioned after Sunday morning’s skate not to read too deeply into any power-play experimentation this month. Pacioretty, Max Domi and Easton Cowan appeared on the second unit in limited time with Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

After playing Pontus Holmberg between Pacioretty and Grebenkin so far in camp, Berube moved Tavares into Holmberg’s spot as part of going with as many of his best as possible in the opener. A shorter six-game pre-season slate gives less wiggle room to prepare for opening night in Montreal on Oct. 9.

ICE CHIPS

There was a pre-game video salute to Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, with a 13-second moment of silence … It was Matthews’ first game wearing the ‘C’ and he had a couple of chats with the referees on close calls against the Leafs … Adding to Tanev’s size on the bluel ine was 6-foot-7 Cade Webber in his NHL debut after signing from the NCAA.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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