Penguins show their pedigree against the Maple Leafs

TORONTO – John Tavares had an old feeling with his new team on Thursday.

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The disappointment of having lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I've seen them a lot in my career," said the center after the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Penguins 3-0 at Scotiabank Arena. "Of course, that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, not to win two points, especially at home, a tough challenge to a proven hockey team, I think we were excited and ready to play and obviously put and disappointed that we did not get the result.

"It's a good learning opportunity and it's a good test now to try to find [how to get] this momentum back. "

His point is valid. The Penguins gave the Maple Leafs a lesson, as they often did at the New York Islanders when Tavares was playing for rivals in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Division. Tavares signed a $ 77 million seven-year contract with Toronto on July 1, after nine seasons in New York.

Video: PIT @ TOR: Malkin beats Andersen five holes for PPG

The Penguins have won three Stanley Cup titles (2009, 2016, 2017) from the center Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin became a teammate in the 2006-07 season. They showed their mettle Thursday against the growing Maple Leafs.

The majority of the pre-game hype swirled around Toronto, which has seen a five-game winning streak. Center Auston Matthews led the NHL with 16 points (10 goals, six assists) and had seven straight multi-point games to start the season. Only Mario Lemieux and striker Kevin Stevens (Penguins, 1992-93), Mike Bossy (Islanders, 1984-85) and Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers, 1983-84) also experienced at least series as long.

Matthews' hot debut reflected the Maple Leafs, who had scored 33 goals in 33 in the NHL early in the season 6-0. Local talk shows were dominated by interlocutors suggesting that Matthews was the best player in the match.

Pittsburgh thought otherwise. His championship pedigree defeated Toronto's talent and young legs, which was not a surprise to Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock.

"I thought their team played well," Babcock said after Toronto closed for the first time this season. "I did not think there was a lot of room tonight, I thought that they were playing fast, that they were playing with good structure.This is not often that our team do not score any purpose.I just thought that they had done a good job.

"It's a more experienced, polite and playoff team than us, that's what was shown."

Babcock, taking the last home line-up, started the game as Matthews faced Crosby. He blocked the plan after Matthews was relatively inefficient in the first period.

"It looks like they're just calm, cool, gathered there," Matthews said. "They did not run, they just played smart, they did not force anything and they made games, it seemed like they made us run a lot."

Call it a knowledgeable veteran. Crosby is 31 years old; Malkin is 32 years old. Everyone has the feeling that he still has a lot to do, even though critics claim that the window of opportunity closes on the aging Penguins.

"We certainly do not feel in our organization," said Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan. "We believe in this group – it's a group of players as good as the one I'm in. They can always play, and they know how to win.

"You get the best of everyone each night.You get this burden of responsibility every night when you have accomplished what this group has accomplished.This is a credit for them and for the reputation that they have acquired. "

Video: PIT @ TOR: Malkin credited with an empty goal

Goalkeeper Matt Murray, who has two rings at age 24, made 38 saves. Malkin scored in the first period, scored in an empty net in the third and then attended to Kris LetangThe goal of the net is empty.

"We fought hard," said Murray, who returned after three missed matches because of a concussion. "It's a crazy and dynamic team out there and we control them pretty well.

"We were ready to play an excellent team and I thought we played hard and I think we're all encouraged by the way we played."

The Maple Leafs are 6-2-0, the Penguins 3-1-2. For Malkin, these recordings matter little. Pittsburgh's performance Thursday does.

"We played against Matthews, Tavares and we did a good job," said Malkin, one day after telling NHL.com that Tavares and Matthews could have the same impact as the Crosby and Maple Leafs on the Penguins. "We understand that they are great players and we played physically against them, we played tight against them and we deserved to win.

"I do not think about the Leafs, we knew they already had six wins, but we focused on our game." We know they're a great team, but we played smart. big experienced team We know how to play tough games We've been there already We know how to play with talented guys We stopped Matthews, it's the first game that he's not going to did not mark [in].

"If we play like this, we will win a lot of games."