Maple Leafs look for rebound performance vs. Flyers

After an embarrassing loss, the Toronto Maple Leafs will aim for redemption by eliminating mental mistakes when they host the struggling Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

Toronto squandered a 2-0 lead on Saturday night and then folded in a 5-2 road loss to the Nashville Predators.

It was not so much that their three-game winning streak was snapped, but it was the way in which it happened.

The Maple Leafs (42-25-3, 87 points) will be looking to take it out on the Flyers (28-35-9, 65 points), who dropped their fifth in a row Sunday -- a 7-4 loss against the host Chicago Blackhawks.

"We should be pissed off," John Tavares said after scoring Toronto's first goal in the defeat. "I mean, it's a great opportunity to end a really good week, the way we bounced back from a stretch that wasn't going our way.

"We weren't playing the way that we talked about -- our standard and the level of play we expect on a nightly basis."

Toronto was constantly caught trying to defend odd-man rushes and gave up five straight unanswered goals.

"That's mental," Toronto coach Craig Berube said. "I haven't seen mental mistakes like we made (Saturday) in a while. They looked more hungry than us in the second period. They didn't give us a lot of room, but we didn't fight for it either. It was a total flip that they did. What we did to them in the first, they did to us in the second.

"And we had breakdowns that cost goals. And there was no reason for it."

The loss leaves Toronto second in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Florida Panthers (43-25-3, 89 points).

"The inconsistency is obviously not ideal, especially this time of year," Auston Matthews said after registering two assists on Saturday. "We have a bad outing, and we string together a couple good games and kind of another letdown like this. That's on us to make sure that we're consistent every night, no matter what the situation, no matter what the game presents."

Toronto's Scott Laughton will face his former team on Tuesday after being traded at the NHL deadline on March 7.

The Maple Leafs have won both games this season against the Flyers, who have lost 10 of 11 after their sloppy performance on Sunday.

"It's tough because we were putting in some good efforts these last few games against good teams and didn't get the results," Flyers captain Sean Couturier said. "(Sunday), it seemed like we were off, we were slow. Feels like we gave them easy goals, and it's just unacceptable against this kind of team."

Travis Konecny ended a 13-game goalless streak on Saturday in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars and scored again on Sunday.

"He's our best player, and if we want to have a chance to win, he's one of those guys that, you know, needs to produce," Couturier said. "But, it's not only just scoring goals. I think he's going more to the net, being inside and not just waiting on the outside."

Flyers coach John Tortorella wasn't happy with his team's effort in the second end of a back-to-back.

"As sloppy as both teams were, I thought at the beginning of the second period they outworked us," Tortorella said. "I just don't think we had the right effort at that time. We needed to play north more. We need to get our forechecking going like they did at the beginning of the second, to give ourselves a chance."

--Field Level Media