Toronto @ Pittsburgh preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 2, 2019 ) Pittsburgh 2, Toronto 3

The Toronto Maple Leafs are just as close to last place as they are to first in the Atlantic Division and hope to put a halt to their free fall when they open a six-game road trip Saturday night against the injury-plagued Pittsburgh Penguins. The Maple Leafs have dropped four straight games (0-3-1) and allowed 14 goals in the past three after suffering a 4-2 setback against Boston on Friday.

Toronto, which is without high-scoring right wing Mitch Marner (ankle) and center Alex Kerfoot (dental fractures) indefinitely and lost versatile forward Trevor Moore (five points) after he took a big hit Friday, received goals from Auston Matthews and Kasperi Kapanen in the loss. “The capability that we have in our room is better than what we’ve shown,” Matthews told reporters after the setback. “This is an important road trip for us.” The Penguins won’t feel any sympathy for the Maple Leafs’ injury problems with All-Star defenseman Kris Letang and power forward Patric Hornqvist nursing lower-body injuries, and captain Sidney Crosby out six weeks after undergoing core muscle surgery. Pittsburgh has shown plenty of resilience this season and will need it again over the next month after suffering a 2-1 loss at New Jersey on Friday despite a 39-21 edge in shots.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, NHL Network, CBC, Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet360 (Toronto), AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh

ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (9-8-4): Matthews leads the team with 14 goals and 27 points while defenseman Morgan Rielly and right wing William Nylander are the closest active players to him with 17 points. Captain John Tavares recorded his 398th career assist and boasts half of his 14 points in the last five games while fellow forward Zach Hyman set up one tally Friday for his first point of the season in his second game since returning from offseason knee surgery. Frederik Andersen (9-4-3) turned aside 30 shots Friday and owns a .929 save percentage in six games this month, but three straight losses.

ABOUT THE PENGUINS (10-6-2): With Crosby and Letang out, center Evgeni Malkin is the first player that needs to step up and the big Russian had seven shots on net Friday after posting a goal and five assists in the previous four games. Defenseman Jack Johnson scored his first goal of the season against New Jersey and forward Alex Galchenyuk, still looking for his first tally with the Penguins, had an assist to register the 300th point of his career in his 500th NHL contest. Matt Murray made 19 stops Friday and owns an .894 save percentage in six games this month after posting a .923 SP in October.

OVERTIME

1. Pittsburgh F Jared McCann was kept off the scoresheet Friday and remains one point from 100 for his career.

2. The Maple Leafs are 17th in the league on the power play (17.1 percent) after going 4-for-38 in the last 10 games.

3. The Penguins are 18-for-18 on the penalty kill over the last eight contests, moving to second in the league at 88.6 percent.

PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 4, Penguins 2