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Game in 10: Matthews hat trick not enough to overcome defensive frailties in Maple Leafs’ loss to Sabres

A few thoughts in note form tonight:

The story of the first 40 minutes of this game was about the Leafs shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly.

They gave up the opening goal on a power play stemming from a too-many-men penalty (their third of the young season) as Calle Jarnkrok jumped on early and played the puck. Jarnkrok, to his credit, later made the pass for the 1-0 Mitch Marner breakaway goal and gave the Leafs a great effort on the extended 5-on-3 kill, which he played all 1:34 of due to the fact that the Leafs‘ top two PK forwards — David Kampf and Marner — were sitting in the box and the coaching staff likely didn’t feel comfortable using Noah Gregor or Matthew Knies there given their limited PK experience.