LOS ANGELES — Mike Babcock was talking to reporters on Thursday morning when he happened to hit the nail on the head.
“Some of you guys have been asking me, ‘What are the other teams doing to adjust to you?'” the Maple Leafs coach said after a team meeting at the Staples Center.
“Part of it is that, but part of it is what you do with the puck. If you don’t take care of the puck, you can’t win.
“It’s just flat-out losing hockey. Can you win the odd night doing it? Sure. Most of the time you’re just going home disappointed and you’re frustrated at the same time. So take care of the puck.”
We can imagine Babcock was disappointed and frustrated hours later, as his words rung true.
The Leafs didn’t take care of the puck with consistency Thursday night, losing 5-3 against the Los Angeles Kings.
What should be maddening for the Leafs is they didn’t lose because they were terrible, unlike Monday night in San Jose.
The Kings scored three goals off turnovers and two more on the power play, and that was just in the first two periods. Iron the kinks out early and the Leafs likely win.
The Leafs, who have lost four of five and finish their four-game trip in St. Louis against the Blues on Saturday night, spotted the Kings a 5-0 lead and scored two goals late in the second period before Connor Brown scored his first power-play goal of 2017-18 in the third.
Auston Matthews’ 50th National Hockey League goal in his 96th game came on a penalty shot, awarded at 17:50 of the second period when referees Chris Schlenker and Trevor Hanson deemed that Anze Kopitar hooked, or slashed, Matthews as the Leafs’ star had a breakaway and could not get a shot off.
Matthews smoothly deked to his backhand to beat Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.
It was the Leafs’ first goal on a penalty shot since March 14, 2015, when Phil Kessel beat the Vancouver Canucks’ Eddie Lack. In between, the Leafs had three, but Joakim Lindstrom and Michael Grabner (on two occasions) did not score.
The goal was Matthews’ 10th of the season and 50th in 96 career games.
In franchise history, it was the Leafs’ 29th penalty-shot goal on 67 attempts.
Matthews had another penalty shot late in the third, but Quick got a piece of his shot.
In the dying seconds of the period, Zach Hyman, who missed a great chance earlier when Quick made a pad save, dug the puck out to Matthews, who then passed to Morgan Rielly. The Leafs defenceman beat Quick with 1.5 seconds on the clock for his second of the season.
The Kings’ Tyler Toffoli scored two goals two minutes apart earlier in the second period.
The Leafs were down 3-0 after the first period. We’d say the Leafs, who had 21 shot attempts to the Kings’ 22 in the opening 20 minutes, should have had a better fate, but when you’re giving up the puck like they did, no.
Jake Gardiner lost an edge and fell in the Leafs end, handing the puck to Tanner Pearson, who then fed Mike Amadio. A second or two later, Amadio, who scored 50 goals in his final year of junior for coach Stan Butler and the North Bay Battalion in 2015-16, snapped a shot past Curtis McElhinney for his first NHL goal at 2:34.
The Kings scored on a power play on 4:58, when Dustin Brown waited out McElhinney and passed to Mike Cammalleri.
The Leafs couldn’t score on back-to-back minors to ex-teammate Brooks Laich (who might have set an NHL record when he took an interference penalty two seconds after his slashing minor ended), but did have some good scoring chances as the period progressed.
Mitch Marner hit the crossbar. Nazem Kadri walked into the slot and had time, but shot high and wide.
But nothing for the Leafs. A dagger came to end the period came when Kadri had a few chances to clear the end, but instead turned the puck over.
The Kings’ Trevor Lewis found an open spot and one-timed a pass from Nick Shore into an open net, as neither McElhinney nor any of the Leafs on the ice knew Lewis was waiting in the faceoff circle to the goalie’s right.
Forward Kasperi Kapanen and defenceman Roman Polak drew into the Leafs lineup, as Josh Leivo and Connor Carrick were healthy scratches.
tkoshan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/koshtorontosun
