Mitch Marner remains undeterred despite Leafs getting shutout in Game 5: ‘It’s not supposed to be easy’

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner remains hopeful in his team despite being shutout 4-0 by the Ottawa Senators in Game 5.

With a chance to close out the series in front of their fans for the first time since 2004, the Leafs were never able to generate much momentum and came up empty on three power-play chances. That last one resulted in a shorthanded goal for Dylan Cozens, which was the dagger.

Marner spoke after the game and felt the game boiled down to not executing on their opportunities.

“ I mean, we had our looks. Didn’t capitalize on them. That’s how it goes,” Marner said. “ We’ll look at what we can do better and figure it out.”

Ottawa opened the scoring with a Thomas Chabot point shot that went through a screen, while Linus Ullmark was able to track just about everything that came his way with 29 saves on the night. Marner feels the Leafs have done well in the second and third periods of the last few games, but knows they need to find ways to elevate their game further.

“ Fine. It’s not supposed to be easy. This is never supposed to be easy,” Marner said, when asked about his team’s level post-game. “ We knew it was gonna be a challenge.  We knew it wasn’t gonna be easy, they pushed back the last two games. We got to go into a building and play our best game.  We’ve been a great road team all year, so we have confidence in this group.”

The state of the Leafs going into Game 6 on Thursday is a far cry from where things stood barely a week ago, holding a 3-0 lead following Simon Benoit’s overtime winner in Kanata. That’s how quickly things can change in the playoffs, and the concerns that they are reverting to their bad habits are only growing louder with each passing game without finishing the series.

When asked how the Leafs can get more bodies in front to try and solve Ullmark in Game 6, Marner admitted there’s room for improvement.

“ I mean, that’s always something you can say,” he said.  ”We gotta get more bodies there, second opportunities. We’ll look at all options and try to figure out what we can do better.

“We’ve been a great team all year. We just have to show it.”