Phil doesn’t thrill but Penguins still win
Maple Leafs keep Kessel off scoreboard but aside from Komarov offence silent
PITTSBURGH— Jonathan Bernier looked sullen.
For the most part, he’d played quite well, shutting down Pittsburgh’s big guns in Sidney Crosby and former teammate Phil Kessel on Saturday night.
But the Leafs goalie knew what he had done earlier. He let in two early goals, on the Penguins’ third and fourth shots no less. As it turned out, that’s all Pittsburgh needed in registering a 2-1 win over the Maple Leafs at the CONSOL Energy Center.
“I need to play better for my teammates right off the bat,” said Bernier, who faced 33 shots.
As Evgeni Malkin and Olli Maatta scored 39 seconds apart in the first 61⁄ minutes, it felt like all the mo
2 mentum the Leafs had been building through their previous two games — where hard work had been rewarded with three of a possible four points — had come to a crashing halt.
It was the return of the bad old Leafs with the bad habits they’ve been trying so hard to expunge.
“Bernier had a real strong game after the first two goals,” said coach Mike Babcock. “Hopefully this is what will get him over the hump, because we need him to be good.”
For the fifth game in a row, the Leafs gave up the first goal.
“Catch up hockey is losing hockey,” said Babcock. “You want to start on time, you want to get the lead. I thought once Bernier settled in, he played good. But we need Bernier settled in from the get-go. He’s got to be ready. He’s got to be a wall for this team.
“You saw in the second and third what he’s capable of. We need that at the start of the game.”
It was a night that was supposed to belong to Kessel. He wanted to shine against his former team but it didn’t happen that way — he had his chances but didn’t bury them. But come the final horn, that didn’t matter.
“I’m happy whenever we win,” said Kessel. “This one is extra special playing the old team. I’m thrilled to get this win.”
Kessel is beloved here in Pittsburgh. Only the ovation for Crosby was louder than Kessel’s when the starting lineups were announced.
Kessel might have been a bit nervous; he fanned twice on power plays, and fumbled the puck on occasion.
“Obviously, I played with those guys for a long time,” added Kessel. “They’re good friends and it’s weird the first time playing against them but they’ll always be my buddies.
“It’s different but it’s part of this game. You just get used to it. I love being here.”
Meanwhile, the work-in-progress Maple Leafs may have found a firstline right winger to replace Kessel: Leo Komarov.
Komarov got Toronto’s first goal — deflecting a Jake Gardiner slapshot — and has three goals in two games. He’s been on the first line for three games and has gained Babcock’s trust.
One storyline the game was robbed of was seeing two friends line up against each other. The Leafs scratched Tyler Bozak with a lower body injury. He didn’t finish the game against Columbus on Friday but had been looking forward to facing Kessel, his friend and former roommate.
The Leafs had four former Penguins in their lineup — Daniel Winnik, Mark Arcobello, Nick Spaling and Scott Harrington. The game meant as much to them.
“Any time you were on a team, you always want to beat them,” said Winnik. “It doesn’t matter if you were there 20 games or three years, you always like beating the old team.”
Winnik played 21 regular season games with Pittsburgh last season before returning to Toronto as a free agent. Arcobello played 10. Spaling and Harrington were part of the massive trade that sent Kessel to Pittsburgh.
“We don’t want to lose, especially coming back to (my) old team, it’s tough to swallow that one,” said Spaling. “We did some good things. We’re going to continue to build. Obviously, at the end of the day we’ve got to get wins and that’s the focus moving forward.”