Character of the Leafs on the line in Game 2

BOSTON— He dressed two enforcers. His fourth line probably got more ice time than they merited — and were caught on a line change for Boston’s first goal.

His top-line strikers had six shots on goal — ghostly Phil Kessel counting for just one (1) during 21shifts.

The turnovers were frequent and costly.

“Turnovers always rear their ugly head in an ugly game when you’re on the wrong side of the score,’’ Randy Carlyle pointed out on the day after disaster.

With the exception of hits — a statistic that doesn’t reflect actual impact of those bangs — Toronto came up short and wanting in every aspect of Game 1 against the Bruins, the extent of that rout not quite captured in a 4-1 score.

After nine years of waiting, the Leafs were a bigger flop than the fifth Diehard movie, New Coke and Princess Beatrice’s fallopian-tubedesign royal wedding fascinator (that’s a hat). I’m exaggerating only slightly. But in a hockey context, the series opener could hardly have been less auspicious — despite the fact they were not the Toronto team that had been most brutally manhandled by a Boston opponent on this particular night in May. The Blue Jays won that futility challenge, hosting the Red Sox.

It’s an interesting metaphorical question: Which of the two Big Smoke clubs has a better chance of rising from the ashes?

The baseballists, of course, still

Leafs coach Randy Carlyle addresses the troops during practice Thursday at Boston University. Game 2 against the Bruins goes Saturday.

have 133 games to reverse the trajectory. The Leafs might very well have no more than three games left in their season unless they turn things around in a hurry. What now coach? Carlyle has maximized the potential of his team this year with a squad that many had predicted would not make the post-season. They’ve been an energetic group with a high compete level and have tended to learn from their mistakes. Ergo, off the schooling applied Wednesday night, they should have a compendium of lessons to absorb by Saturday. That began with a lengthy videotape tutorial Thursday afternoon before practice at Boston University, players compelled not to avert their eyes from evidence that undoubtedly caused many to wince.

It would be fair to suggest that Carlyle was out-coached by his opposite number, Claude Julien, as well, and not just because the latter got the last change matchups he wanted, which meant Kessel could not shake off the constricting presence of Zdeno Chara or Dennis Seidenberg, and few of the Leafs were able to generate any puck movement through a trap-clogged neutral zone, though this was precisely what Carlyle had emphasized throughout practice drills earlier in the week. In any event, the Leafs would first have been required to venture out of their own end and that alone was scantly demonstrated after the first period.

“The first thing is to control the puck more effectively and move the puck more effectively,’’ Carlyle said when asked what the Leafs needed to do better in Game 2, although frankly he could have chosen a) b) c) d) and e) all of the above. “We did a poor job in management of the puck in all three zones.’’

To his credit, Carlyle did not use the matchup factor as a crutch; after all, the Leafs have been a solid road club this season and Carlyle an astute coach. “Wherever we played, we weren’t matching up very well.’’ The coach also defended investing his fourth-liners with decent minutes, as, in fact, Julien had done with his Smash-Mouth trio; after all, it’s not like the top two lines had posed much of a threat, Joffrey Lupul held to two shots and a minus-2 on the night. “The fourth line earns its opportunity to play and do a lot of the good things as far as the physical aspect of their game,’’ said Carlyle. “They gave us . . . some pretty safe minutes.’’ Toronto’s lineup will look different on Saturday, nevertheless. Defenceman Michael Kostka — minus-3, by the way — suffered a fractured index finger in the second period, so he’s gone. It’s unthinkable that Carlyle will again tap both Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, double scoops of enforcement not needed, especially when the objective is to skate with the Bruins and get the transitional game untracked. One or both of Joe Colborne and Ryan O’Byrne will make their post-season debut. But there are only so many moving parts Carlyle can tinker with. Something more fundamental has to change and maybe, now that club’s playoff virgins — more than half the team’s roster — have become men of experience, the heebie-jeebies can be set aside. In fact, by Thursday morning the glumness that had clung to the players after Game 1 — revealed in ashen and downcast faces, in muttering voice — had dissipated. There were smiles and ease by the time they took to the practice ice. “In the beginning, it’s always sombre,’’ said Carlyle. But he needs his club to show resilience, to ignore — if in fact anyone had noticed, which is unlikely — the jeering coverage churned out by local media, making of the Leafs a punch-line joke, like, “What are these guys doing in the playoffs?” Carlyle claimed not to have absolutely hated everything he saw on that video. “We didn’t execute to the level (necessary) but our work ethic was high. We were physical when we needed to be. We had quite a few hits. We didn’t win enough of the one-on-one battles. That was one of the biggest disappointments. But as far as our compete level — we competed, but then we got frustrated and then we got discouraged.’’

The Leafs’ character — which might actually count for more, ultimately, than the outcome of this series — is on the line at this moment. Under pressure — the situational kind, imposed by the Bruins, and the broader ephemeral part of simply being in the playoffs — Toronto collapsed.

In the heat and passion of the playoffs, the emotional and physical duress of these games, every team is constantly challenged. “You play in the playoffs, you’re tested daily,’’ said Carlyle. “You might be tested shift to shift, period to period. It’s going out there and earning their space and delivering in pressure situations. That’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be an easy game. . . .

“(But) we expect them to play the game to a higher level.’’

Can’t get much lower, coach.