Preview: Maple Leafs face a home-and-home vs the Pittsburgh Penguins

Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty ImagesThis is how it works: For every game you blow against a low-ranked opponent, the path gets harder. A rock gets plunked in your way labelled Pittsburgh Penguins, and then another, and then one that says Carolina Hurricanes — but we’re not there yet, forget them. For now we have this:

Sheldon Keefe on #Leafs: "This is the worst we've been in a really long time. We haven't really put our game together for quite some time, but this was different today where for most of the game it didn't feel like we were in the building at all."

— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) February 17, 2020 Which leads to this:

And sure, there’s been bad coaching, failed systems…