Auston Matthews praises the Maple Leafs’ level of competition while searching for their play

“I mean, it’s never ideal when you lose guys to injury, especially important guys,” Matthews said Friday. “And so we have guys coming in who haven’t really played yet or who are coming up at very short notice.

“Guys have to pick each other up, encourage each other and do what you can and fill those roles. But I definitely think we’re still trying to find our game.”

“The disappointing thing is I thought we fought really hard and did a lot of good things, but there’s just too many mistakes going the other way and too many strange people rushing against us,” Matthews said after the game. “And they feed off the transition. You get caught and they make you pay.”

“That’s the most frustrating part, just because I thought we played a really tough game tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we were rolling with four lines, just competing at a higher level, a level that we need to win games consistently.”

Matthews isn’t necessarily wrong: Toronto beat Buffalo 34-30 and Matthews scored a power-play goal, but these are essentially footnotes as the team has rarely played the sum of its talented parts this season.